It's Turbin' Time (Library of Ruina Modded/Arknights) Crossover (2024)

Interlude: Through A Path Of Briars

When Maria Nearl learned she was going on an official, secret mission with her uncle, she'd initially been thrilled.

"Look, we need to go and kill Bernardo Bellone." explained her psychopath of a leader, screen flickering, killing the last bits of her enthusiasm that still remained. "We're not going to be able to pass the Anti-Corruption Police without killing him. Preferrably in a painful and gruesome way."

Her uncle was focusing on his newspaper so hard he was almost boring a hole through it. Beats just kept talking.

"If you guys have any alternate plans, =P, I'd love to hear them out." he said. Maria didn't even feel anything as he spelled out the emoticon. She'd gotten numb to it all by now. "Do you guys have any?"

"I think it's a good plan. What do we have to lose, after all?" said Lappland, a smile on her face. Maria didn't consider herself a violent person, but she had to admit she had come uncomfortably close to punching that smile off her face before.

Someone behind her coughed, startling her. The others blinked. Who-

"My apologies." said Phantom. "...did I scare you?"

"...no, no. Where... where were you?" she said, waving him off. "We hadn't seen you all day."

"I was looking for more evidence of Emil Sinclair's affiliation to Signora Sicilia. I have confirmed quite a few of the rumours that I found initially. With the clear image you gave me of his appearance, it was not difficult to find more." he noted, throwing a glance at Linette- before shaking his head. "Emil Sinclair is definitely employed as Signora Sicilia's personal assassin. I must not, however, that I disagree with the plan. How is killing him in a painful and gruesome way going to help?"

There was a pause.

"Didn't you hear us earlier, theatre kid?" said Linette. "It's all about the chaos."

"I understand the proposal of seeding chaos amongst the gangs. But I do not think it is necessary." Phantom countered. "It does not help with the Anti-Corruption Police objective, which is a better way to draw Signora Sicilia's personal attention. Gang wars happen very often, here, and are not met with immediate pushback. Reformism is."

Linette turned her head and stared into Phantom's eyes. He stared back impassively.

"...that's a good point." admitted Beats, picking up a cup of coffee. "Right, anyone has any more suggestions? Like we said, we need to make enough noise to bring Emil down on our heads. From what Linette's boyfriend gathered-"

"I am not her-"

"I genuinely don't care." a fake cough. "What did you find again, Blem?"

She frowned.

"Well... we were looking around like you asked us too. Lavinia got the We need to protect the judges. We inspired them to take down the gangs for once and for all, and with our protection they're making strides in that direction. But the Wolf Killers cut us off from Rhodes Island..."

They looked at the pile of communications devices- still buzzing, damaged beyond repair despite her best efforts, and Maria turned towards the window. She couldn't see it from here, but she still remembered the smoking ruins of the Infected clinic here. Not Rhodes Island. Just a partner that had agreed to let them in. And how had they repayed them?

They were all dead, now.

"Młynar, did you find anything on the Wolf Killers?"

Her uncle sighed.

"Nothing much. We got confirmation that their first victim was the former Reunion operative Lyudmila, whose dilacerated corpse was found in a hotel. The case was never solved, and the killer was never found. No one arrived at her funeral." he turned back to his newspaper. "Were it not for the string of extremely similar and violent killings in the area afterward, nobody would have even found it unusual. "

"Pretty lucky of you to find the connection." noted Lappland with a shrug.

"Nothing else? No more data?" asked Beats.

"There's some more. Let me fetch it." her uncle said, standing up with an exhausted look.

The Wolf Killers. They were stil a mystery.

The most they knew was that the they were an organization of Lupo, going by the fur samples found in the crime scenes, and that they had cut a bloody swathe through Siracusa before arriving in this city. Nobody saw them. Nobody knew their members' true identities. But they were spreading like a plague across Siracusa.

"Why did the Wolf Killers go against us?" she asked. It didn't make sense. Why would they immediately launch themselves against Rhodes Island? There wasn't much in the way of pro-Infected violence attributed to them, at least not in the records they found. "Racial violence in some way?"

"Młynar, that was everything you had?" Linette said, as her uncle returned with a map of the mobile city. "Pretty sad of you. Really sad. Like your sorry excuse for a social life."

"Can you-" her uncle controlled himself. "I have more. Yes, Linette, yes, I have found a bit more."

...those two were always bickering, she thought. It wasn't the friendly kind of bickering, like with Linette and Sleepy. Linette hated her uncle as much as she cared for him. He did his best to ignore her, but- he cared too. She could see it. Even if he looked angry to even have to pay attention to what she said, he always did so anyway.

"I believe we have found their hideout."

"Wolf!"

The shadow emerged. It was enormous. A wolf the size of a car, immune to bullets, immune to knives, immune to everything he could hit it with.

...except, maybe... maybe Anti-Blue Ammunition. He'd spent a pretty penny, and Blaze Workshop had assured him it would kill anything and everything he could possibly shoot at. It could work, if it could hurt walking, talking spacetime distortions then it could hurt this.

But he only had five cartridges left. He had to be careful.

"Emil Sinclair." the wolf laughed, her voice clear as water. "I thought you'd rejected Vais' proposal."

"Not yours. You're more my type."

She laughed again.

The wolves' game dominated Siracusa. They worked on the shadows, manipulated politics. Their champions had positions, they had the power. The only thing they didn't have was Signora Sicilia.

It was what he could offer.

"You're a charming one." said Nia. "If it meant getting an in with her, I could make many concessions. But that's for later. For now, we have to formalize this. As annoying as it sounds."

"Not a fan of formality?"

"I am not a fan of uncommittment. The game is simply too fake for my tastes. If my fellows want to play civilized, they should put on the work. Living one foot in our world of wolves and one foot in your world of men is a ridiculous charade I put up with out of courtesy."

"What world would you rather live in?"

Nia grinned. Her claws glinted under the moonlight.

"Is it really a question, dear? There is nothing I wish more then to win under my own merits- rather then those of a pawn. We cannot kill each other. But I tell you-" her paw slammed against the pavement. It cracked. "I could wrestle any of my fellows to submission. I would be pleased if things returned to those days. But I'll settle for a... civilized victory."

She spat. Emil fumbled with his gun. The wolf turned her head towards the moon, and missed the glare Emil threw at her.

"Shameful. Soll is making his moves already for the game. I have long since delayed my acquisition of a pawn. My fellows accuse me of waiting until all are dead and weakened to pick off the stragglers. I will prove them wrong. You will bring down Zaaro's pawn at his peak. He is entrenched, as it is. You will bring him down regardless."

Emil made a coughing noise. He liked fighting. He liked shooting people. But he'd kinda come to like Signora Sicilia, too. Hopefully this latest assignment wouldn't turn out to be the last.

"Right. Right. Who is that one?"

"Bernardo Bellone."

"Everyone panic! This is a robbery!" shouted a seven foot tall Lupo, waving an oversized crossobw with one hand as if it was a toy. Behind her, a Phidia wearing a mask and a large fur coat raised an equally massive mass-produced looking sword, a grin on their face.

The bank tellers blinked. A bank robbery? But they'd paid all the fees for the month. To every single famiglia they knew. Was this some idiotic upstart with-

The glass separating them from the clients shattered as the Lupo hurled the gun through it. She laughed.

"I said panic!"

The bank's clientele graciously followed. The Phidia's sword battered through a wall, and the two were on their way. Security guards tried to intervene, but the robbers didn't especially seem to care until one of them shouted for them to identify themselves.

"We're with the f*cking Lavanos cartel!" was the first answer.

The brawl that ensued was as quick as it was brutal. The guards weren't exactly ready for someone of that level- the most they usually did was chasing off upstarts who thought they could make a quick buck, and they didn't even have to hurt them. The gangs handled all of that, it was poor form to let a business you were protecting be robbed by one of your own troopers, or god forbid- an independent.

The Lupo scratched her snout, a laughed.

"How do you feel with the makeover, Lappy?"

"It feels like sh*t!" said the Phidia- Lappland. A bright smile adorned her face as her companion rifled through the guards' pockets. "Like I took a bath in mud. Damn, Linette, you live like this? Guess it explains how much of a bitch you are."

The Lupo- Linette- raised a buzzing radio device from one of the guards' pockets, before crushing it in her hand.

"You get used to it. After your face melts off you stop feeling the gooey sensation, you know? It just kinda becomes the baseline." She turned towards the Phidia. "Say, tell me something about yourself."

"What?"

"Something about yourself, are you deaf or just stupid?" a similar grin adorned Linette's face. It was just as dumb-looking as her companions' own smile. "We haven't really gotten to know each other. All I know about you is that you're an assassin or something."

A sideeye glance.

"...and that you're late-stage Infected and a battle junky. I rifled through your medical records."

"Hm, an assassin, huh? Yeah, alright." Lappland raised her sword in the air. "I can be that, if I want to. It's how thinks work, isn't it? If I got the strength for it, I can do whatever I want, be whatever I want!"

"...that's true. I guess." a pause. "That said, that's my thing. It's best if you find your own gimmick. You need to be visually unique those days, you know?"

"Are you going to stop me? What are you going to do? Sue me?"

"Nah, just warning ya for your good. This is actually pretty standard stuff, everyone needs a cool gimmick they can sell as their look. You know, like, four brass robot arms and blue glowing eyes, or armor made out of a thick layer of medals, or a mustache that reaches out and strangles you? It's all part of the job."

She shrugged.

"It's not enough to be a dramatic weirdo, you gotta be your own flavor of dramatic weirdo. Take it from a veteran, kid."

Lappland tilted her head.

"Hmmm. That's a good point. Everyone needs their own thing to do. Sometimes we all lose track of what makes us ourselves, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Hell, look at me. I made that entire Mirror Knight aesthetic from the ground up just to have something visually unique behind all the copying." she paused, looking at her hands. "It was a lot of work building the prototype for my mirror armor, you know. But it turns out wearing a glass window sucks for you, so I just decided to fake it with my Arts."

The two chatted for a bit more as they ventured deeper into the bank, slicing clean through the walls with barely any care for what was in the way, avoiding the confusing route they'd normally have to take to get to the vault.

Cameras exploded and crumbled into pieces at their passing, Linette's skin bubbling underneath her clothes. If a person with very sensitive ears paid close attention, they would hear a soft buzzing.

"Hey, look, there's someone there!"

A clerk screamed as the wall came down, Lappland's sword cutting through the solid concrete without any apparent effort.

"Hey, look." said Linette, pointing at the computer in the office room whose walls they had just seriously damaged. "She just finished locking the vault."

The clerk babbled something or another, but the two didn't seem to care much about it.

"Listen, please, just let me go, it wasn't me. I don't know anything. I don't know who didn't pay the fees this month, please don't hurt me. I didn't even lock the door, the vault lock activated the moment the alarms went off. It's sealed, nobody can get in for 24 hours. Please, I don't know anything, as far as I knew everyone paid everything, I didn't do anything, just let me go."

"Okay." said Linette.

"Please, I can't-"

"Go, girl, we're not going to hurt you." said Lappland, with a bored look.

The clerk didn't wait much further, almost doubling over as she ran out of the room.

"Feeling soft today, Lappy?"

"Just bored, let's get this done already."

Linette didn't bother giving any response. She simply sliced down yet another wall with a mere swing of her arms, her form shifting into a metallic colossus. One of her hands was a large drill- the other, a hammer.

When the dust cleared, Lappland and Linette stood before a giant vault door.

"Oh, we've found it Signora's vault. It looks... somewhat disappointing, doesn't it?"

"Oh wow, really? I thought it was a surprise it was so plain."

"It just feels rather cheap, perhaps."

Linette shrugged as the drill started spinning. She pressed it against the top hinge of the door and it began to grind through- the metal shrieking and screeching as it gave way. Metal shavings flew and sunk into the wooden floorboards, dug into Linette's metallic armor, and then splashed harmlessly against liquid as the Hephaestus formula readjusted itself and its density.

The drill started to power down. Behind her suit of armor, she took a deep breath.

"Yeah, it's not going to work. I don't wanna pull this whole thing out of the wall, it's going to be such a chore."

She walked back to the door, and, forming the drill in the other hand as well, began to bore a hole just above the wheel of the vault.

"Alright, I'm done."

The mechanical colossus dissolved into silvery liquid, before reforming into a short man with dozens of tentacles protruding from where his arms should be. The tentacles started to poke and prod, testing each corner of the vault before intruding into the hole. The melted metal was searing hot, but they didn't seem to care; the damage it inflicted healed fast enough for it to not matter.

A sound, almost imperceptible. A soft click. "Oh, look. It's unlocked-"

Linette didn't finish the sentence, as the door started to tilt forwards out of it's frame, with her tentacles still all lodged inside. The enormous slab of metal simply slumped over and smashed her flat with a large thunk. The floorboards cracked, and then collapsed. The vault door smashed through the ground and left Linette in the shape of a puddle, two meters deep into the floor.

"Oh my. That was embarrassing."

The liquid started to wriggle out of its position, pushing the door just enough to slither back to place. Linette's arm manifested out of the puddle.

A pause.

"At least you opened it, hm? Maybe you'll learn to be less lazy next time."

The judge and the killer stare into each other's eyes.

"Lavinia Falcone." says the latter. "You're an interesting one."

Lavinia sneers. There is rage in her eyes.

"So, should we just kill her?" asks Linette, form shifting and boiling until a perfect replica of the judge stands before them. "Hm. Did I get the voice right?"

"A bit lower, perhaps." says Lappland, gaze still fixed into the judge's own. "But judges die every day, don't they? It's not something that would draw her attention."

"Not all of them, right? The gangs still want to keep to their..." Linette makes air quotes. "Standards. Pretty pathetic."

"Killing her won't bring any real benefits." says Phantom, still standing in the shadows. "Killing all judges in Volsinii, meanwhile, might. Emil was, as I said, sighted in here a few days ago. If the legal system she created collapses completely, he might be deployed against the offender."

"Emil... Sinclair?" whispers Lavinia. "The assassin? Why do you want to..."

"We're here to draw him out." says Linette. She pauses. "So we can kill him. The secret is chaos. We want to cause chaos, dear judge, so we can draw him out of his hideout, and then we'll slit his throat."

Phantom and Lappland both raise an eyebrow at the bold-faced lie. Lappland is surprised, in truth- with how much those Turbulence Office guys talked about friendship, she'd never think Linette would be able to talk about murdering a friend so nonchalantly. Lavinia Falcone does not notice their surprise as she stares in confusion at the liar. And Linette, still clad in her disguise, smiles.

"Yes. It's exactly what you're thinking of, judge. He's one of the most dangerous agents of Signora Sicilia. If he went down, this country would definitely be improved for the better. How many innocent people has he murdered?" she says, grin stretching further then Lavinia's mouth would allow.

"...I can't condone this."

"You can't condone the chaos, right?" she whispers. "But now... now that I'm getting a better look at you, I might have a better idea. What do you think of her, Lappland?"

Lappland tilts her head.

"She looks... unthreatening. I could slice her up without much trouble. But there's that conviction, here? She's seen an opportunity. She thinks we have something we can give her, eh?"

"She's a judge in Siracusa; she's a hypocritical waste of space like all the rest of them, and she knows it. Deep down, she knows it."

Linette approaches, and puts her hand on Lavinia's chin.

"Look at this face, judge. Look at your face. Isn't it so sad? You uphold the law, but the law is worth nothing in this land; and even that farce is barely there, thrown aside whenever the famiglie think it's convenient to do so." she whispers. "I know you're not corrupt. But you're an accomplice, Lavinia Falcone, whether you like it or not. Can you admit that to yourself?"

"I-" Lavinia closes her eyes. "I know I'm an accomplice. I've always known it, since that day..."

She sighs.

"When someone decides they will do something, they disappear. Or someone comes to have a chat, and they can't get up from their chair for a week. So, I get it. I get why we're like this. I get why we decide to avoid one or another case, why we say it's not worth the time and energy. It's only five people after all. It's only eight people who disappeared. It's only a string of killings. Life must move on, and they had it coming for crossing a famiglia." she grits her teeth. "I know. I know it all. What do you want me to do about it?"

Linette caresses the woman's cheek, before turning away with a laugh.

"Good! Good! It's good to be honest with yourself, Falcone. Very good. Lappland, what do you think of this honesty?"

"I think it's rather sad. The life of a judge sounds horrible." Lappland clicks her tongue. "But... I think I'm seeing something, here. There's something you can do."

"What are you..."

"You think there's nothing you can do. No matter how much you work, you get nowhere. You struggle to see that future, that law in horizon. But there's none." she croons out. "The famiglia are inescapable. Even if you believe in good, even if you believe in the ideal of Law- you cannot create change. As long as Siracusa stands, it shall be like this."

A pause. A snap of her fingers.

"But what if... there wasn't? What if it all went up in flames?" she laughs. "It's good your leader chose me for this mission, Linette. I've never wished for anything more then an opportunity like this. Look at me, at the heart of Volsinii, given the chance, and the order, to sow chaos. It's everything this mad dog, this Lappland, could have ever wanted."

Linette turns her head back at Lavinia. Phantom slips back into the shadows. Watching, as always. Waiting.

"Lavinia Falcone, I would rather not have your blood in your hands. I have a proposal for you. Do you recall that... project? It was shelved some time ago- because you knew it wouldn't materialize. You would never have the strength to protect yourselves for long enough for it to manifest..."

The city of Volsinii is a nest of corruption. There are twelve tumours upon the twenty-two hearts of Siracusa, and here they all gather. Here they shall ever gather.

"But... what if you did?"

Alla luce del sole

In this character drama directed by Martin Koranelli, An aging priest helps kids to get off the streets, offers confessions to mafioso, and makes of his church a refuge, which means trouble for the local Famiglia. He continues his solitary fight until the bitter end.

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"Hey, we robbed a bank today!"

Młynar Nearl did his best to focus on his newspaper. Again.

Linette wasn't having any of it, though. She approached, and leaned over his shoulder.

"Hey, we robbed a bank today."

More silence.

"We robbed a baaaaaaaaank today, Młynar. We robbed a bank. We're fugitives. You know what that means? We're all getting arrested. Your perfect work history is going to go to sh*t, Młynar. You're going to get blacklisted, Młynar."

Młynar Nearl realized his knuckles were white- and that he had torn a large set of holes in the edges of his newspaper with his grip. He held back an anguished scream.

"What did you do!?" shouted Maria. She stared at both of them looking utterly dumbfounded

"I had to take drastic action. Your uncle here is the king of neglect and I've had enough of that, frankly. I think spending some time in jail might be good for him." said the shapeshifter, draping herself over his body. "I should know it. I spent a bunch of years as an insensate puddle and I came out of it way more responsible."

"What?"

"We robbed a bank." Linette continued, tapping his cheek with a melted finger. She smiled with a distorted face, a pool of bubbling mercury in the place of her eyes. "We made some fake identities, we got into a bank where Signora Sicilia had some important stuff stored, and we stole it all. So now I'm pretty sure she'll be dispatching Emil to find it."

"That was the plan you were going to put into practice today!? What- what about the Anti-Corruption Police?"

"Yep." she said, . "Don't worry, it's going to help. Look, imagine someone comes here, under the name of a gang that doesn't exist, and robs something Signora Sicilia entrusted the Bellone with. The gangs are all going to be pointing fingers at each other, they won't focus in the people they should be focusing on. Where's Beats?"

"This place is too small."

The gunman sighed while he washed the dishes. The gigantic wolf was sleeping in the sofa, watching television; though it was doubtful if she was actually paying attention.

Honestly, Emil would have thought she just used it as white noise if she hadn't published actual reviews for those movies.

"It's the best I could get while still being discreet. It's got a good angle, too. Right next to the theatre; and I heard Bernardo likes to come this way. If he shows up where I can see him..."

The gunman mimes a gunshot with his fingers.

"Bang." says the wolf, with a chuckle. "I like your weaponry. It's far more advanced then anything I've seen before."

"That's City gear for you, baby."

"Hm. Tell me more of the City."

Placing the last plate over the spread out towel, Emil sighed and sat on the ground next to the sofa. Nia's head lowered to his height, her red eyes staring into his soul.

"Tell me of the duelists of Cinq association, of the Blade Lineage, and of the Bloodfiends. I thought there were the most interesting out of the tales you told me before, so, elaborate, my servant."

He sighed.

"Right, right. I told you my friend's a Bloodfiend, right?"

"And a former Blade Lineage member."

"Eh. More like she was Bamboo-Hatted Kim's swordsmanship teacher for a while. We had a contract with S-Corp, they got together for a while, then they had a breakup. They refined each other's techniques a lot while they were on it; fighting to the death's pretty much half of what makes a romance for Arabella."

The wolf laughed.

"A woman after my own heart. She was a... fifth Kindred, no?"

"Fourth. She was never that innately powerful, and she's really, really young for a Bloodfiend, she's in her sixties, I think? Yeah, young for a Fiend. "

"Sixties? Yes. A baby."

"Pfft. Yeah, that's that. She's pretty strong, still. Maybe stronger then me. I'm good at surprise attacks and at shooting people before they can react, and she's good at cutting stuff- even bullets- and running after people with her face made into swiss cheese. If they got enough blood, Bloodfiends heal too fast for you to kill. Even if you smash them to pieces, they'll just get back up, healing faster then you can hurt 'em."

"So it would not matter if your fancy bullets dealt unavoidable damage; she would simply heal it."

"If she had enough blood. Poisonous bullets are a thing, too. Bloodfiend Hunters sometimes use cancer bullets. Makes you heal *wrong,* so it doesn't matter if you're regenerating."

"How amazingly horrifying. You have any of these?"

"Nah, we never pick Bloodfiend hunts unless Arabella's vetted them. And she doesn't do that often."

"Hm. Not fond of hunting her own kin?"

"Bloodfiend matters should be left to Bloodfiends, that was pretty much her quote. Say..." Emil sighed. "Can I sleep on you? I didn't get a bed for the apartment yet and you're covering the sofa. You're fluffy, it can't be that uncomfortable."

"Forward of you. But well. So be it."

She picked him up with a paw, staring into his eyes. The mechanical lenses on the right eye spun to look at her back. She tossed him on his back, and closed her eyes to sleep.

This wasn't that bad, Emil thought. Not bad at all.

"Get him the hell out of here!" Beats roared. "There's too many of them!"

The judges and lawyers gasped, but followed shortly after. Lavinia Falcone gave him one last look before picking the head judge's barely breathing form up herself. The security accompanied them as they were led out of the building, through the sewer passage the full-body convert had found a few days earlier.

Emil, you better get here after this, Beats thought, slumping over the door as the men behind it did their best to kick it down. He couldn't let them break through until everyone was evacuated.

What a bloody time for a conflict like this.

He knew Siracusa well enough. It was one of those places that never really changed. He suspected it wouldn't change until everyone in the country stopped going along with the way things were run- but he knew that was a fool's hope at best.

Nevertheless, he had to at least try. Signora Sicilia's power depended on fear, no? The gangs feared her, and people feared the gangs.

If the gangs went down, she'd soon follow. The Anti-Corruption Police was a novel concept, though it was just for this one city- but if it could secure funding despite every Family doing their hardest to shut it down, it'd be a start, wouldn't it?

Of course it was going to fail.

The judge at his feet was almost dead, a bolt to the lung. He was going to die, Beats was sure of it, but had he not intervened, the famiglia would finish the job and cut down all of the rest.

He looked around the room. It was littered with corpses. Three judges dead before he could arrive, twelve mafioso.

"Damn it, Sieg." his speech box stuttered out. He needed to replace the damn thing soon. "=0. f*ck."

His monitor buzzed.

A mafioso kicked a hole in the door next to him. He relaxed the weight behind the door-

And then he kicked it.

It flew back, and he heard screaming. He didn't pay attention. His sword was already moving through the air, a mafioso's head split in half. He pushed it back, and the cutlass sparked with lightining. There was a moment of silence.

Another one dropped dead. He had to keep moving.

His body flickered. He put his foot through a man's head. The mafioso took a step back. He pointed his sword at them.

";^D. Not one step."

One of the grunts, well, grunted.

"I saw you announcing the games. What the hell is a Kazimierz celebrity doing here? You know this means war."

"=1. You know, I'm not from Kazimierz. I'm not from anywhere around here." he said. "Now, you guys are sad. Really, less corruption means everyone's happy, right? <3"

The man- a tall, pale Caprinae with brown eyes and a stern expression- grunted. He held two knives. He was evidently a higher-up of some Famiglia or another.

"Why do you talk like that." said another one.

Beats knew that one. Demetri Certaldo. Member of Famiglia Bellone, consigliere and assassin. Hardliner. Believer. No diplomacy with this one. If he wasn't here, he'd have killed many more of those judges before. The Anti-Corruption Police would have never gotten as far as it did.

"nerves ;P"

A lie, obviously. He didn't have that many left. Back in the City, only around 80% of his brain was nonmechanical- skirting around the current 60% line kept by the Human Permissions Act, and with the Tin Man's help he had been getting steadily closer to breaching that law. It's not like he cared much, at this point.

He wanted to go home, for sure. He wanted it more then anything else. But Linette couldn't come back with him. And if she had to stay, so would he.

He didn't give the man time to give a retort. He leaped into the fray and slashed off his head-

No. He dodged. No use wasting the momentum, though. Beats swerved to the left and carved out a huge chunk of another mafioso's arm. His body let out sparks as he accelerated, spinning madly and leaving a trail of gashes through the room. The mafioso tried to flank him- good decision. He turned back to deflect a swing from Demetri's weapon.

He was quick. And strong. Grade 2 at worst, closing the gap to Grade 1. Beats was better, but only a Color could march alone.

He was outnumbered. He had to make this not worth it. If he focused in wasting their time- killing more mafioso, stalling until all the judges escaped- he could buy time. He had to buy time.

Damn it. He hadn't had much time either. If he had heard about the mafioso making their move earlier, he'd have warned the rest of his squad about it. But being a leader was about decisive action.

Block another hit. Damn it. The Bellone had good soldiers. This guy was tough and his companions weren't slouches either. He was killing them way slower then he needed to.

The passage was shut, at least. He kicked Demetri back and stepped back to the center of the room. They started to surround him- keeping a close eye on his sword. He let out a buzzing sound, and threw his cape back dramatically. He swaggered over to Demetri.

";P"

"Don't give me that smile."

";P =D =7 =)"

Demetri went to face him head-on. He knew he was trying to stall for time. If he cut him down, he'd have to avoid the wrath of the Bellone even more then before. Damn. Really bad situation for him.

Thankfully- he'd won.

We got in the safehouse. He's being treated.

The message passed through his processors, and a smile formed in his screen again. Giving them a communications device that hooked to him and nothing else was the right move.

Now to get out.

L'uomo, la cucitrice e la bestia da corsa

A surrealistic movie mixing character drama, nonsense comedy and horrific mimicry of a nature documentary in which a lonely man living in a remote cabin in the woods wakes up one day and realizes his beloved--a dismembered corpse nailed to the cabin wall--has been made ugly and rotten by the flies that swarm her. He wishes she were beautiful, like the scurrybeasts of the wood and the Zalak of the village in edges of the forest. And so he sets out to hunt them, so that he might staple their corpses to her and make her beautiful again.

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The maw almost closed around his leg. The creature grunted with pain as Młynar slashed at it again.

Its eyes were narrowed, a twisted, deformed mouth set in resigned frown, with a bit of its snout parting to reveal a clenched jaw and snarling teeth. But it didn't move.

For now, it wasn't going to give up. It spun back to its original position, coiling back on itself. Its many paws and mouths twisted on themselves, blooming like flowers and turning back again.

The Wolf Killers weren't what they thought. They weren't people. They were the exact kind of twisted creature that he'd seen in the Major- the same kind of creature as the Khaganquest that Rhodes Island had kept chained in their basem*nt.

It was a Distortion- and going by how the gruesome killings continued, even after it left the cities it rampaged on behind- it was not a single entity.

The poison was spreading.

Maria put herself between him and the Distortion, throwing him a worried glance.

For nothing, really. The worst he had was a dislocated shoulder and some minor scratches. He focused on the enemy before him, and on its twisted bulk.

His eyes hurt looking at the Wolf Killer. It was painful to describe. It looked like a gigantic, twisted cross between a Lupo and a coilbeast. Aside from the deformed Lupo face, a snout torn in two and ripped by its own snarling mouth, it had a second face on its back, covered in nothing but teeth, followed by a forest of twisted, broken limbs it used to shovel its way forward.

Młynar waited for it to make the first move. He waited to make a reaction. The Wolf Killer obliged. It moved an arm to reach for Maria, the appendage making an audible snapping noise as the bone cracked. She sidestepped the grab, and, blade shining with Arts, stabbed its bigger eye.

It roared in pain but continued with its path, arms flailing behind it, shambling forward desperately attempting to bite.

Screaming all the way, the Wolf Killer bit once, then again, but both times its gnashing teeth managed to just barely to miss her body. As it leaped back to take a brief breather, he ran forwards, seeing the opening.

The Wolf Killer hissed, and flung itself away.

Its hands launched towards his throat once again- too fast for him. Too fast to react to as they erupted into nails and thorns, blood and bone lashing out wildly in every direction. He grit his teeth and prepared himself for the incoming pain- but it didn't come.

Maria stood in front of him once again. Her sword had succeeded in throwing it off-balance- but the damage was done. Her arm was bleeding, chunks of bone having pierced through her armor and into the flesh.

No. Enough of this, he decided.

In the span of the second where the creature was thrown off its course, it was defenseless. He sped past his niece- resisting the urge to throw her a worried glance. The Wolf Killer tried to spit at him, but it was useless. It was completely open.

With one swing of his blade, Młynar decapitated it. It crumpled to the ground, and its head still tried to leap at him for one last bite- before Maria's sword brought an end to that.

Its body slumped over, unmoving, before starting to dissolve into black liquid- a final gasp echoing out of its jaws as the head Maria had ran through started to bubble as if it was boiling.

"Strength wasn't enough." it whispered, sadly. "Strength wasn't enough..."

And then it was gone. Like it had never existed. All that was left of the Wolf Killer was a piece of orange cloth. But there were still more out there.

Maria nodded to him. Młynar took a breath, and ran to meet his companions.