We are getting close to the endgame of the first story arc of Nikke, and to the end of this part of the fic in general.

  *begins cackling*

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  “Please at least tell me that you got a picture of Syuen trying to fight Ingrid.”

  “Really? That's the third thing on your mind right now?”

  “What? It would be hysterical. Like watching a chihuahua trying to pick a fight with a rottweiler, but without any animal abuse.”

  “You really don't like Syuen, do you?”

  “Of course!”

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  The silence was oppressive. Just the two groups staring at one another. The matching red and black contrasting with our effective mismatch of outfits.

  Vesti looked positively adorable, her bright blue eyes looking almost a bit too big, but still very Bambi-like. Her childish appearance was further reinforced by her short silver hair. I wanted to feed her homemade chocolate chip cookies. Just, cute, need to adopt energy. Not sure why she was part of one of the strongest when she was giving off those vibes, but looks could be deceiving.

  Emma ways, almost Vesti's opposite. Not exactly opposite, but she was tall. Well, taller than me by a little bit, with long blonde hair and eyes that looked like a mixture of yellow with a hint of green. While Vesti seemed to give off nervous child energy, Emma seemed a bit more composed.

  Eunhwa?

  How did I put this? Without sounding completely insulting, I mean? Eh, I honestly don't think I could. Despite the purple dye job to the inside of her hair, and the very tactical vest and jacket? Rapi and Ingrid were stoic, but Eunhwa had mastered what I could only describe as a resting, god was I really going to say it like this?

  Don't think I could put it any other way though.

  Her resting bitch face.

  There, I said it. Eunhwa had mastered the art of looking at you while judging you without actively entirely looking like she was judging you. Maybe not mastered, but her face didn't have a single twitch on it. Meaning the just blank, judgemental look was her natural expression.

  Or I don't know, maybe there was some truth to the whole, keeping your face like that, it'll get stuck that way.

  “Feels a bit crowded, don't you think?” Normally, I would say that Anis was trying to break the ice. But, given what I heard about Absolute and their interaction with Counters?

  “Feel free to leave if it bothers you so much,” Eunhwa glared at Anis like it would catch her on fire. “What I don't get is why Absolute has to babysit a third rate squad like you?”

  Rude.

  “Third rate? Isn't three higher than one or two?” Neon asked in a tone that was a bit too innocently.

  “Yes, absolutely!” Anis grinned. Didn't know if Anis planned on it, but she was running with it as far as she could.

  “Shut up, you idiots,” Eunhwa growled, now glaring between the two.

  “Takes one to know one!” Neon responded, grinning like mad. That level of playground level response shouldn't have warranted a response, but.

  “Yes, absolutely!” Anis continued, also grinning, as I got a first hand look as Eunhwa's eyebrow twitched.

  A snort of amusement left my throat as a giggle left Vesti's.

  “Are you finding this all amusing?” Eunhwa glared down toward her teammate as I frowned. Vesti flinched, but before she could say anything, I spoke up.

  “Absolutely!” I did my best to wear the most infuriating, shit eating grin as possible. If Anis and Neon could get her goat this easily? Then there was no reason to throw my hat in the ring.

  Eunhwa turned her withering gaze toward me. Oh, like I'm so scared. Christ, just how big was the melee weapon she had lodged up her ass? I rolled my eyes, something that hopefully would piss her off.

  Yes, this was a mission and taking it seriously was important. But Eunhwa clearly had a stick lodged in her ass.

  A stick up her ass and a page of the Book of Grudges wrapped around it.

  “This is a joint operation. You are not here to babysit us,” Rapi said, matter of factly. Eunhwa's head whipped around at the sound of Rapi's voice.

  “Joint operation? Look at you. You can't possibly think you're close to our level,” Eunhwa snapped as I narrowed my eyes on her. Okay, there was history there. History I didn't care about right now.

  All right, steady now. We mustn't judge a book by its cover,” Emma finally spoke up. “Besides, we're doing Ingrid a personal favor here. If you keep acting up, I'll have to report you.”

  That finally got Eunhwa to shut up, letting out a hiss.

  “Interesting. Mention the boss and grumpy pants shuts up,” Anis grumbled, still poking.

  “Listen, you walking scrap heap. Just because I have to deal with your idiocy doesn't mean we're equals,” Eunhwa growled, glaring at Anis. “Not even close.”

  “Hey, you should watch your language!” Anis fired back. I watched as Eunhwa's gun moved subtly at each word that came out of her mouth. “I ought to tell your boss about your potty mouth.”

  Bam!

  The gun was aimed at Anis’s feet. It ended up putting a bullet into a distant sandy hill.

  “What is your major malfunction!” I bellowed, having used my ability to throw Eunhwa's aim off as I effectively appeared in front of her in a blink of the eye. To her credit, she didn't respond to both my hostility or sudden appearance.

  “Excuse me?” She glared at me, even as I kept a firm hand on Eunhwa's rifle. This time, I was fully intent to glare back.

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  “Oh, did I fucking studder?” I fired back. “I don't know if you had something crawl up your ass and died there this morning, or if the stick up your ass is a natural feature. But whatever beef you have, we are in the field! You think you're so much better than us? Then act like it!”

  “Even the blind can tell you need an attitude adjustment,” Anis chimed in as Eunhwa continued to glare at the two of us. I felt a firm tug on the rifle, but I didn’t budge an inch. My eyes narrowed even further.

  “Don't do that again,” I let out a growl, before letting go of the rifle. Christ on a stick. That was one of the worst first introductions I'd had to a person in my life.

  We didn't have time for this crap. I didn't know what Eunhwa's malfunction was. But if I was able to keep myself from smacking Wardess with the hatchet in the field, she should be able keep a hold of whatever her problem was to herself while we were working together.

  I heard the others talking. Barely. My blood was pounding in my ears. I knew Shifty was going over the mission objectives. The walking helped clear my head, if only a little. I could tell that Vesti was looking at both Anis and myself in a measure of wonder.

  Slowly, my ability to listen to the briefing returned.

  “To summarize, the objective of this operation is to enter the center of the crater, collect the heretic fragments, then to bring them to the Ark,” Shifty explained, seemingly back in her usual form.

  That being said, I did have reservations about the whole, bringing the defeated remains of a Heretic into the Ark to study. I could understand that leaving them to the elements, or in reality, the Raptures, wasn't appealing. It was probably safer for us to have the remains than to have them remain on the surface. Probably.

  “Do we have any reason why the flames subside?” Rapi asked. Right, there was fire involved too.

  “It is believed that the natural gas underground has been exhausted,” Shifty explained. That was as good an explanation as any.

  “How many decades ago was this?” I asked with a slight frown. Now, natural gas was never my geological wheelhouse. I would never pretend otherwise.

  “It was three months ago. Maybe you should pay attention,” Eunhwa scoffed. My frown only grew. Only three months? That didn't sound right. That sounded pretty wrong, in fact.

  “Unless it was a particularly small natural gas deposit? Usually natural gas fires on the surface are measured in decades, if not centuries or even longer,” I said aloud, not thinking about much but the problem before me. “There was even a man-made fire that lasted for more than fifty years with no signs of stopping.”

  “And how exactly do you know all that?” Eunhwa asked, somewhat snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “Syuen does shit work so I remember a lot more than I normally would?” It was only a partial cover.

  “So if it stopped burning, then why?” Johnson thankfully stepped in before things could escalate again. That was an easy question to answer, too.

  “There are two ways. As I said before, it could just be a particularly small pocket and it has legitimately ran out of fuel. If that's the case, then there is nothing to worry about,” I said with confidence. And if that was true, all my concerns would be for nothing. I rather liked when that was the case. “The second is if something managed to cut off the natural gas from the fire.”

  Now what that something was? The major question of the day.

  “Raptures aren't that smart though, right?”

  “Ha!”

  The laughter was coming from Anis, for reference.

  “My first mission on the surface was hunting down a Rapture that could talk alongside Wardress,” I shrugged. By this point, I legally could tell anyone I wanted that. So I would without a second thought. “Look, the overwhelming majority of Raptures? Stupid, and I do indeed mean stupid. But there are a handful that are far more intelligent than the others.”

  “So that's what Wardress was up too? Interesting,” Emma nodded her head. “Ingrid did tell us, but it is good to get it from the source.”

  Excellent. More of the truth coming out was more than good enough for me. Eunhwa gave me a look, eyes narrowing slightly.

  “Ah, so you were the mass produced model,” Eunhwa said, as if she was only just now realizing that. “I hope you weren't a waste of Ingrid's time.”

  She was already walking off before I could ask what the hell that was supposed to mean.

  “So, what was it like fighting the Heretic?” Anis turned towards Emma as we continued to walk through the arid landscape.

  “Luck was on our side. If the lightning hadn't struck where it did?” Emma shook her head. “Or deaths would have been likely.”

  That was understandable. We had a pilgrim in our corner, on top of whatever it was that I had been told I pulled out of my ass. Us living came down to luck, no matter how you cut it.

  “Enough of that,” Eunhwa hissed, either clearly not liking the moment, or not wanting the squad she considered inferior to learn that they too had their clocks cleaned by a Heretic.

  “I won't feed our teammates false information, it's too risky,” Emma gave Eunhwa as much as an exasperated look as she could get away with.

  “Teammates? I would have no problem sharing with teammates. But these bums are not teammates,” Eunhwa grumbled as I pinched my brow.

  “Need I remind you how they also went up against a Heretic and survived the encounter?” Emma pointed out. Nice to have someone putting some credit on Counter's name.

  Eunhwa's mouth made a thin crease. “Just dumb luck.”

  She said at last, continuing to lead at the front.

  “Seems like a lot of that is flying around when it comes to fighting Heretics,” I say. Which based on how Eunhwa turned around, was a mistake.

  “What did you say?” She hissed, glaring at me.

  “God, what is with you? You had a straight up act of nature turn the fight in your favor. We were lucky enough to have a pilgrim backing us up from the jump. Pot, kettle!” I gestured, my own temper starting to spike.

  “Yeah, Emma just said it was luck,” Anis cut in, stepping closer as Eunhwa continued to glare at me.

  “Maybe they let you off easy. You were part of the same squad, after all. Maybe she felt sorry for you, and took it easy on you.”

  “What?” Anis’s voice was full of confusion and bidding anger in equal measure. As for me? The only reason that Eunhwa wasn't on the ground clutching her broken nose was because I would have done more than that. The NIMPH blared in my mind as my knuckles turned pale, forcing me to deal with urge

  But as I stepped into Eunhwa's personal space, race ran through my body. Most of it was because, frankly? We knew nothing about what being corrupted, being a Heretic, was like from the inside. For all we knew?

  “Which is why half the people fighting her were those she had no connection to. Or did you forget about that little fact because you need to make up reasons to sleep at night?” I jam my finger into Eunhwa's shoulder. She tried to grab at it, but I pulled it away before I could. “Because of what? Our existence somehow wounds your pride? Or are you stupid enough to actually think that Rapture Corruption would allow for any amount of free will? For all we know, she could be a prisoner in her own body, unable to do anything but scream as her puppeted body kills her friends. So how about the next time you want to start spouting off bullshit? Close your fucking mouth!”

  Eunhwa looked at me with just as much rage as I was. Her rifle was moving in an all too familiar way. Fine, if she wanted to play the game of shooting the human?

  I was more than willing to show why I was better than her.

  Elen! Eunhwa! That's enough,” Rapi's was enough for me to move my gun back toward the ground. I stepped away from Eunhwa, my breath rattling. She wasn't worth it. Eunhwa wasn't worth the effort.

  “No! You do not get to say my name, traitor!” Eunhwa bellowed, whipping towards Rapi in a heartbeat. Her words made the air go still as stone. All of us looked at her after that outburst.

  “Damn,” Eunhwa hissed through her teeth. “Damn you all.” She began to stalk off, leaving us behind.

  Okay, what the actual fuck was that? Was this whole grudge against Counters just because she had a grudge against Rapi?

  “She needs to check her attitude at the door,” Anis grumbled, crossing her arms.

  “She needs to get the tree shoved up her ass out,” I scowled, hoping I was loud enough for her to hear even as Eunhwa stalked off.

  “I think the two of you got to her,” Neon commented, continuing to move. I don't exactly disagree with that assessment of the situation.

  “You did help get under her skin,” I was going to give credit where it was due. Neon logic was going to make some people throw their hair out. “Heaven help her if this is the first time she's had to deal with people who won't take her shit.”

  Christ, what was with her? I'd heard of Absolute. Through the biased lens of Missilis propaganda, and then what Counters said about them. Eunhwa was their no nonsense leader.

  Completely at odds with the person I had just met, who was easy to rile up, easy to poke, and holding a grudge over who knows what?

  “Hey, I'm just trying to break the ice, you're the one getting in her face,” Anis exclaimed as I rolled my eyes. Yeah, I wasn't buying that. I wasn't buying that at all.

  “She tried to shoot at you because she couldn't react like a normal person, then ran her mouth because she couldn't cope with the truth. We're in the field, the hatchet should be left in the Ark where it belongs,” I said with a frown.

  “I'm a bit surprised that's your ethos,” Emma appeared close to me, a slight smile on her face. Stepping a bit closer to keep the conversation somewhat private, even as Vesti stepped closer to Anis, asking about how to talk back to Eunhwa.

  Guess I was a bit too mean on that front. Wasn't going to apologize until Eunhwa did, though.

  “Syuen had a gun to my head, so I had to work with Wardess anyway. But there are enough enemies on the surface. No need to go out of the way to make more,” I shrug, my temper coming down to a low simmer. Still there, so if Eunhwa opened her mouth and shoved in her foot, I would go back to seething. “I may not be perfect about it, but I try to keep it in mind.”

  “I see,” Emma nodded her head, as my gaze went towards Rapi. She seemed a bit more silent than usual. The ringing comment bounced around in my head. Traitor.

  That was a strong word. A loaded word. One not thrown around without lots of emotional trauma being involved. What exactly had happened there? Eunhwa? I could care less about what she thought. But Rapi was, if not a friend, someone close enough to it.

  She was the one I wanted to help.

  “That's good to know, at least,” Emma gave me another soft smile.

  “9 o'clock. 42 Raptures!” Shifty's voice cut through any response I could have to Emma's words.

  “I'll go,” Vesti said, voice stuttering as she spoke.

  What the hell did she mean by that?

  “What? You going alone? That's too dangerous!” Anis exclaimed.

  “I'll be back in a minute, then you can teach me, okay? I'll make sure they're all dead,” Vesti said, running off before anyone else could raise a single word of protest.

  Well, I was not going to let her run off on her own.

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  My first shots brought down the Rapture with little effort. With my augmentation, I was able to speed past Vesti, opening fire. I let the augmented nerves drop, still firing from my position. A rocket slammed into several more, as Vesti continued to close the range.

  Closer, and closer. Despite my gun, Vesti's rockets tore through the numerical advantage.

  One of the Raptures broke through the den. I prepared to grab Vesti and pull her back, only for her to dash forward. Vesti grabbed hold of the Rapture with both her arms. Metal groaned in protest as Vesti began to pull. A groan that quickly turned into a scream as Vesti pulled the Rapture in half.

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  “You killed ten of them,” I knew if Vesti could reach, she would be patting my head right now. Like she hadn't just killed more than me, including picking up a kill in melee combat.

  Melee! I watched her pull apart a Rapture like it was a Kit Kat bar!

  “Aren't you supposed to be the weakest link?” Good to know Anis watched from a distance. Not that Vesti needed any damn help, apparently.

  “Far from it!” Emma let out a laugh. “She's probably the strongest of us.”

  “Good going,” I ruffled Vesti's hair, earning a giggle from her mouth, despite my own complaints.

  “Sorry,” the stammer was back. How could someone so bad ass look so adorable?

  “No need to apologize,” Anis said, Vesti looking up to Anis with stars in her eyes. “Well, let me teach you how to win.”

  Anis leaned down, whispering in her ear. There was a wince that spread across Vesti's face.

  “That seems a bit mean,” Vesti frowned, shifting her feet.

  “But you don't disagree?” Vesti was silent at that. “Use it when the opportunity presents itself.”

  Speaking of opportunity. In came Eunhwa, telling us to get a move on already. .

  “You better not be corrupting the youth,” I lean in, whispering in Anis's ear.

  “Why don't you join the itty-bitty titty committee!”

  Try not to laugh. Try not to laugh.

  “Hahaha-ahahahahahahahahah!”