It took longer than Moonface had expected for his wounds to heal. Though it wasn’t surprising, given the strength of the mad man who made them. The languid pace of his recovery was fortunate, however, as it concealed the nature of what he hid in his stomach.
Moonface stretched out his yellow face and clenched his teeth to loosen up his skin. Then he eyed the watch, still intact on his wrist.
Just in time, he thought malevolently.
He reached deep within, tightening his stomach and chest muscles. He pushed upward with his gut, slowly edging an object up his oesophagus. A heavy metal pellet slid upward into his mouth, which he held within his teeth. He took aim at the glass window, drew a deep breath, and spat the ball. It dinged against the glass, but didn’t break it.
That wasn’t the point.
The warrior guarding the cell shot up with a start. He looked into the cell and saw Moonface grinning and chortling. The homunculus started to convulse and gag. Curiosity overcame the man. He placed his hand on the Kakugane on his chest.
If it moves, I can kill it in a heartbeat, he thought confidently. Then he opened the cell and stood with his toes just beyond the threshold.
“What is it, you piece of garbage?” muttered the warrior.
Moonface grinned, and then spat out another object. This one was larger. It cracked open in mid-air, revealing the writhing, voracious creature that had waited within. The veiny, bio-mechanical thing pawed and slashed at the air between it and the man, whose blood ran cold. He didn’t get a chance to activate his Arms Alchemy, before the creature landed on his eye and savagely clawed its way into his head. He shrieked with panic, before falling to the ground, gripping his head and wailing.
He soon stopped thrashing and fell limp, only to awake a split-second later with a strident gasp. The man rose to his feet and gazed absentmindedly at Moonface.
“Release me, you neonate knob-head,” exclaimed Moonface. The newborn homunculus summoned its host’s memory, and moved forward to release the restraints. Moonface pivoted onto his feet with a long, relieved sigh. He then regurgitated a broach in the shape of a crescent moon, which he set to his shirt. Instantly, his flesh and clothing renewed themselves, much to his delight.
“Moon!” he giggled. He checked his watch. “Shaula should show shortly. Let’s steal that Silver Key, eh?” His new slave grunted obediently.
Moonface strode out of the cell. He regurgitated another capsule and smashed it onto the head of an approaching warrior. The embryo therein happily dove through the woman’s skull and possessed her. Moonface regurgitated ten more capsules and handed them to his new subordinates.
“Courier some chaos, kiddies!” he chirped. The homunculi grinned most maliciously, and then started down the hall in opposite directions. Meanwhile, Moonface shuddered, and split off a clone of himself, the head in a gibbous shape. He did this repeatedly, until thirty of him lined the hall. Each of them complemented each other on their handsomeness, before darting down the corridor, in search of the Silver Key.
* * *
Alarm bells blared throughout the compound. Nathan and Astrid shot up, while Sakura whimpered with worry and confusion. Eriol frowned in alarm. Astrid marched across the cell and banged on the doors.
“Report!” she bellowed.
The door slid open and the guard poked his head in. “Moonface has escaped custody. There are homunculi in the facility.”
“What?” yelled Astrid.
“How the Hell is that possible?” exclaimed Nathan.
“General Rodrigo has dispatched security,” said the guard. “You are all to remain here.”
“Rubbish!” snarled Nathan. “Your warriors are all out at Somerset Dam! If Moonface got out, we’re the best ones to take him.”
“He’s got a point,” said Eriol.
The guard pointed at Eriol and barked, “You’re not an authority here, Scotsman! Stay put!” Something grabbed the guard’s leg. He grunted in surprise, and then shrieked in horror as a long tentacle dragged him out of the cellblock. His cries abruptly ended, followed by a slurping sound. A series of heavy, wet footfalls echoed from around the corner, and a giant mechanical mole appeared in the corridor.
Astrid backed away, her arm around a trembling Sakura.
“Nathan, I don’t have a Kakugane,” she yelled.
Nathan, meanwhile, was breathing slowly in an attempt to settle his mind. He muttered, “Give me a second, or I’ll go Victor.”
“Eriol, use your magic,” pleaded Sakura as she gripped the Silver Key box.
The Scotsman was already in action. He procured his sun-shaped key from his breast pocket, and hastily activated it. The mole lunged at the sight of his wand, which issued a fire blast. The creature flailed about, smashing the walls of the cell, setting the flammable parts of the room ablaze.
“Nathan!” yelled Astrid in alarm.
Nathan saw the mole, its carapace smouldering. The homunculus glared at Astrid, and the tentacles on its nose flagellated with hunger. Suddenly, Nathan’s chest exploded with dark and purple discharges. In the next instant, he had buried his lance in the mole’s body, and the thing disintegrated. The death of the creature stirred within him an unbelievable sense of satisfaction, and he relished the sight of the black blood that oozed from its wrecked metal carapace.
Nathan felt a tiny sting on his shoulder, as if someone had thrown a small pebble at it. He glanced over and saw Eriol, panting and sweating as if he’d run a marathon. Wisps of energy wafted from him, Astrid, and Sakura, toward Nathan’s feet. Nathan looked down in terror to see his skin had turned crimson.
I went Victor!
He fell to his knees in a panic, and gripped his chest to find some semblance of a centre. The sight of his friends slowly losing their energy horrified him, and made his point of control a moving target. He grit his teeth and punched the floor in an effort to control the monster within, but the fight was not going his way. He looked at Astrid, who stared straight back at him. Her eyes, weighed down by fatigue, pierced into him, and reminded him of the day he’d come back to life for the second time.
Only your body has become a monster like him! Don’t let your mind go too.
Those words had been the spell that brought him back. He gripped his lance tightly, and pressed his other hand to his chest.
My mind has not changed … My mind has not changed …
He repeated the mantra over and over, until he found that steady rock amid the maelstrom of power and hunger. He grabbed onto that place in his mind and, with a roar, deactivated his Arms Alchemy. His crimson skin broke off from his body like a glass coating, revealing his human form underneath. He felt dizzy. He glanced over, and saw Eriol barely able to stand. Astrid nursed Sakura, who was delirious.
Nathan scrambled over and hoisted Eriol to his feet.
“I hit you with everything I had,” exclaimed the Scotsman weakly.
“You’re getting stronger,” grumbled Astrid.
Nathan didn’t like the sound of that at all. He glanced around the wrecked cell and sighed.
“We need to get out of here,” he said.
Eriol shook his head and slapped his knees to get feeling back into them. Then he edged out of the cell, using his wand as a walking stick. Astrid pulled herself up with sheer willpower, and tried to rouse Sakura. The girl was definitely breathing, but was sound asleep. Nathan lifted her onto his shoulders and Astrid grabbed the box containing the Silver Key. They followed Eriol down the hall. The corridors of the building echoed with screaming and booms, evidence of Moonface’s mayhem.
“What should we do?” asked Eriol.
“Obviously, we need to get out of headquarters,” said Astrid. “We can get to the hangar this way.” She led them down an adjacent corridor. She stopped a moment to pick up the Kakugane left by the mole’s last meal. She activated it, and her Valkyrie Skirt’s blades stood at the ready. She led the way, Eriol bringing up the rear.
They passed through a number of passageways, before reaching the hangar bay. It was chaos. At least two homunculi were wreaking havoc against teams of technicians and engineers armed only with handguns.
“Don’t they know those won’t kill homunculi?” exclaimed Eriol.
“There aren’t any more Kakugane available!” replied Astrid. She thrust the Silver Key box into Eriol’s arms and raced forward. The surviving officers saw her advance and cheered desperately, alerting the homunculi to her presence. The one nearest the cowering group, having taken the shape of a wolf, snarled and galloped to meet her. It lunged, and tilted its head to ensnare her in its open jaws. Astrid slipped onto her backside, and slid under the beast. With her blades outstretched either side, she sliced through the homunculus’ legs, leaving the creature to hobble on four stumps. It leaked black blood from its stump legs as Astrid skidded to a halt, and then leapt back over the monster and stabbed it through the head.
Amid the battle, Eriol leaned toward Nathan and muttered, “God, I miss watching this.”
“Too right,” replied Nathan.
Astrid turned and charged the other homunculus. The hulking mass of vines resembled a metal Venus flytrap, whose wide jaws clapped together as it snared one of the unarmed officers. The vines constricted the man, constraining his flailing arms as they brought him near the creature’s gaping mouth. Astrid sliced through the vines, and then launched herself onto the creature. She hacked and slashed until the wailing being was no more.
Eriol and Nathan moved into the hangar toward Astrid and the other technicians. It was then that Sakura started to stir, and realised she was clinging to Nathan’s back.
“You can put me down,” she mumbled. Nathan released her, and Eriol handed her the Silver Key box after checking her condition. She yawned, “Was just tired. It felt almost like changing a Clow Card.”
Eriol eyed Nathan and said, “It’s a lot worse than that. Keep the Silver Key close, and get ready to use your magic.”
Sakura’s eyes darted around the hangar, and noticed the decaying homunculus nearby. Everyone else was still on high alert. Sakura activated her Star Wand reluctantly, and resonated with the Cards in her pocket. They stood at the ready, and she gazed toward the entrances.
“How many more hostiles?” Astrid asked a nearby officer.
“Two came into the hangar,” said the officer. “We’re getting word of more from else where in HQ. They have micro incubators for homunculi embryos.”
“Moonface must’ve swallowed them before getting captured,” Eriol concluded.
“The bastard planned this,” snarled Astrid. She glanced at Nathan. “You able to fight.”
“I doubt it,” said Nathan. “I don’t think I’m centred enough to activate my Arms Alchemy without going Victor.”
“Going what?” asked Sakura.
“I’ll explain later,” said Nathan.
Astrid turned to the officer. “Any transports able to fly?”
“Them beasts smashed the engines of every plane we got,” said the officer.
“Shit!” bellowed Astrid.
Suddenly, the wall of the hangar exploded. Debris and rubble rained down upon the small group. Sakura quickly cast out the Guard Card, and the shrapnel harmlessly dinged against her shield. She then cast out Gale to clear away the smoke, which earned her a round of applause from the smartly-dressed figure standing in the middle of the destruction.
“Moon! Such marvellous magic, Madame!” exclaimed Moonface. He held out his hand and beckoned. “Relinquish the riches!” Sakura gripped the Silver Key box tightly. She raised her wand with a hostile expression. Moonface sighed with disappointment. “Oh well, I’ll come and coerce you then.”
Eriol held up his wand and shot a beam of energy straight through the homunculus. The smiling creature promptly vanished in a puff of smoke. Before anyone could relax, another Moonface emerged from the hole in the wall. This one had a different shaped head.
“Moonface has an Arms Alchemy!” yelled Astrid. “Everyone, fall back.”
The group started to move away, as Moonface advanced. More emerged from the hole, some of them splitting into more Moonface copies. The different phases on the copies’ heads grinned wider and wider, as they drew nearer to the group.
“Can you kill us all in one go, Scotsman?” chuckled the Moonfaces in unison.
Eriol’s eyes darted between the encroaching army of clones. Sakura’s wand shuddered in her hands, while Astrid growled with frustration and mounting fear. Nathan rubbed his chest, making the unarmed technicians nearby even more nervous.
The group heard footfalls to the left, and glanced over. They saw a female Regiment officer charging from one of the hangar entrances. She was alone.
Warrior Peterson, thought Astrid, recognising the woman as the sole survivor of Moonface and Shaula’s first attack. But the woman seemed almost delighted.
Astrid glanced at the Moonface army, who giggled. A horrific realisation set in.
“Everybody watch out!” Astrid yelled.
It was too late. Warrior Peterson leapt into the air, and her body contorted and split at the seams. A mass of metal and entrails burst from her unhinged mouth and folded in on itself, forming a mechanical cephalopod. The ballistic creature lashed out with its tentacles, knocking the group over as its beak vectored for Sakura.
“Launch!” Sakura screeched at the last minute. Her shoes sprouted wings and she soared out of the squid’s grasp. She landed on the wing of a suspended plane, the Silver Key box held tightly in her white-knuckled hands.
One of the Moonface clones leapt onto the wing and sauntered toward her.
“Stay away!” cried Sakura, unleashing the Lucis Card. A searing laser beam blew Moonface away. But another just appeared, grinning even more maliciously.
“Now, now, munchkin,” said Moonface with a wave of his finger. “It’s time for you to be a good little girl.”
“You’re not getting this key!” snapped Sakura.
“Do you even know why you’re guarding it?” chuckled another Moonface who appeared from the other direction.
Sakura was being boxed in. She quickly cast out Flight, and flew away from the aircraft. Suddenly, one of the Moonface clones leapt from the floor below, grabbed her, and threw her against a wall. The horrific creature held her there.
“You cannot escape, little cherry blossom,” giggled Moonface. His jaw started to widen, and Sakura’s body thrashed with panic.
Astrid looked up from battling the squid homunculus to see Sakura at the monster’s mercy. Using her mechanical limbs, she launched into the air and sliced the Moonface clone. But she didn’t see the other Moonface clone that leapt from outside her field of vision. The clone brought his fists down on her head, propelling her into the floor.
Sakura tried to fly away, saturated with panic and anxiety. It interfered with her resonance link with the Flight Card, which lost energy and sent her to the floor, right amid a quartet of Moonfaces. Between them, she could see Eriol and Nathan wrestling with the squid homunculus. Astrid struggled to stand after that last attack. The technicians, though unarmed, did their best to wrestle with the remaining Moonface clones.
Sakura gasped in horror as one of the Moonfaces gripped one of the officers. His jaw unhinged like a snake and clamped down on the man’s head. The man’s flesh was practically sucked off his bones. The horrific sight was too much.
Sakura stood, her wand in hand, with nothing but her survival instincts to drive her. She cast out the Flare Card, enveloping the Moonfaces around her in a firestorm. They disintegrated, but another nearby Moonface re-spawned them. Sakura cast out Spark, only to witness the same futility. She prepared to cast out another Card. Suddenly, a Moonface clone raced forward and kicked her in the stomach. She flew into the wall, the wind knocked out of her. She staggered to her feet, only to see one of the clones pick up the Silver Key box and chime, “Moon!”
“No!” she cried weakly. She raised her wand, but couldn’t summon enough focus to send out any Cards. The Moonface clones glanced at her and clicked their tongues in an expression of faux sympathy.
By this point, the squid homunculus had knocked Eriol out of the way and had Nathan up against a wall. Its arms had twirled around his arms and legs, and its beak snapped at him. He grabbed the creature’s mandibles and gripped them tightly, cutting himself on the sharp edges. He held tightly, even as the tentacles prised at his limbs. The squid’s head thrashed and flagellated with frustration, while the surviving officers looked on in awe of a man fighting a homunculus with his bare hands.
Nathan heard one of them stammer, “How?”
He chuckled, “I’m the Starlight Lancer! This is my power, given to me by Astrid Rachelle, so that I can protect the ones I hold dear.” He started to pull the squid’s mandibles apart. “And as long as those people exist, there isn’t a sorry shit alive who could possibly beat me!” With a roar, he tore the creature in two. Its black blood sprayed across the hangar floor, and disappeared like water on a hot stove.
Nathan marched forward. He hoisted up Eriol and confronted the Moonface clone holding the Silver Key box. Astrid approached the closely-knit group of clones.
“You’re beaten, Moonface,” she yelled. “Hand over the box.”
“No,” said the Moonfaces.
Nathan touched his chest and said, “I’m sure the others won’t mind me going Victor right now.”
“Just give it back, ya Ruskie bastard,” snarled Eriol.
One of the Moonfaces checked his watch and muttered, “Three, two, one!”
The roof of the hangar suddenly caved in. A saucer-shaped craft plunged through it. Girders fell from above and crushed the rest of the planes and support systems. Sakura was in such a daze she didn’t notice the debris falling directly toward her. Astrid shielded her from the debris with her Valkyrie Skirt.
The Moonface carrying the box chuckled as he strutted toward the ship, which extended a boarding ramp for him. Meanwhile, the rest of him charged Nathan, Eriol, and Astrid. Their efforts were merely for distraction. They didn’t re-spawn, nor did they put up much of a fight.
As they fought, the ship soared into the sky and out of sight.
Nathan gazed up at the hole in the roof, and growled with frustration at the loss. He glanced over and saw Sakura, doubled over and hyperventilating. Tears were rolling down her face as she cried, “I lost the key!” Astrid leaned on her knees and panted with exhaustion. Eriol leaned against his staff. Everyone else just sat on the floor in utter shock.
Nathan could still hear chaos echoing through the complex. He nudged Eriol and told him to look after Sakura. Then he tapped Astrid and muttered, “Let’s clean up the stragglers.”
Neither of them felt terribly enthused at that.