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Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

Reader mode
Bakasmurf if your reading this,I don't know if anybody brought this up yet or not,what are your thoughts on Alice being a failed grimm model?
A:All grimm models have a fairy tail name.
B:red hood exceed system let's her power up with heat being produced as a side effect.
C:Alice constantly emits heat to the point she needs a cold suit to manage it even in the Yukon in winter.
D:in-game Alice burst is very similar to red hood if way weaker.
E: Ludmilla special ability looks like destroying technology but if you have elegg and Ludmilla together their outpost episode states that Ludmilla is draining energy from tech with the tech being destroyed in the process.
My conclusion is that using whatever blueprints they had on red hood tetra tried making a grimms model but the result lead to Alice nearly dying from overheating due to the uncontrolled exceed feeling guilty about it ,Mustang when learning about this decided to give her the best chance of survival by pairing her with Ludmilla who drains energy easing up on the exceed along with her cold suit and then placing her in the frozen Yukon to better her chances until they could find a way to fix her overheating issue.
 
VH777Dragon said:
My conclusion is that using whatever blueprints they had on red hood tetra tried making a grimms model but the result lead to Alice nearly dying from overheating due to the uncontrolled exceed feeling guilty about it ,Mustang when learning about this decided to give her the best chance of survival by pairing her with Ludmilla who drains energy easing up on the exceed along with her cold suit and then placing her in the frozen Yukon to better her chances until they could find a way to fix her overheating issue.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Baka has something like this, only for Real Kindness, in particular Guilty, whose over-the-top super strength is a byproduct of Missilis MMR attempting to replicate Grimms-series Nikke strength.
 
VH777Dragon said:
Bakasmurf if your reading this,I don't know if anybody brought this up yet or not,what are your thoughts on Alice being a failed grimm model?
A:All grimm models have a fairy tail name.
B:red hood exceed system let's her power up with heat being produced as a side effect.
C:Alice constantly emits heat to the point she needs a cold suit to manage it even in the Yukon in winter.
D:in-game Alice burst is very similar to red hood if way weaker.
E: Ludmilla special ability looks like destroying technology but if you have elegg and Ludmilla together their outpost episode states that Ludmilla is draining energy from tech with the tech being destroyed in the process.
My conclusion is that using whatever blueprints they had on red hood tetra tried making a grimms model but the result lead to Alice nearly dying from overheating due to the uncontrolled exceed feeling guilty about it ,Mustang when learning about this decided to give her the best chance of survival by pairing her with Ludmilla who drains energy easing up on the exceed along with her cold suit and then placing her in the frozen Yukon to better her chances until they could find a way to fix her overheating issue.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That is a very interesting and well thought-out theory.
 
BakaSmurf said:
That is a very interesting and well thought-out theory.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heck now that im thinking about it,sending her to work with unlimited makes perfect sense ,Mustang doesn't want the central government to get any data about red hood,so having her in a environment where no commander can chance upon her by accident and since her absurdly high body temperature completely no sells even the worst of cold ,she can work pretty well in the frozen north.
Hell her working with Ludmilla makes even better sense since Ludmilla problems with tech are mitigated by Alice with a workaround and since Ludmilla can drain even nikke ,Alice who has a abundance of energy would barely feel a thing making them ideal partners for one another.
 
Chapter 46 - I'll Find My Way...
===
Chapter 46 - I'll Find My Way...
===

Some time later, clambering over a tree-laden hill, the squad crested the crown and spotted Chatterbox and Modernia milling about on a stretch of ancient highway. The Heretic's Titan looming tall overhead, hovering just slightly above ground.

As Joe fumbled with his binoculars, he remembered that he was surrounded by super soldiers with literal eagle eyes and took the opportunity to be a fucking nerd for a moment. "Snow White, what do your Nikke eyes see?" he asked, doing his best Aragorn impression, eliciting a perplexed look from Counters.

While Scarlet did her best to suppress an amused snort, despite the situation, Snow White took the question seriously, focusing heavily on the distant figures. "Modernia is repairing Chatterbox," she reported matter-of-factually. "The beast's arm has been wholly regenerated already."

"With glee shall I revel in the opportunity to sever it yet again," Scarlet mused in turn, settling her hand on the butt of Fleetly Fading's hilt. "Yet, there they stand, brazenly and without concern in the open… I suspect tomfoolery is afoot, Commander."

"Let them try to spring a trap," Snow White declared darkly, glowering at the distant pair with an apparent hyper-focus. "It won't do them any good anyways."

A little worried by the sniper's intensity, Joe turned to Rapi and asked: "What's the Alva Particle density around here?"

"Low enough that the drone should work, as long as you don't have it stray too far from us," the red-and-black bedecked blonde asserted as she adjusted her scarf.

"Then everyone, form up around me, schiltron formation, eyes in all directions," he directed the Nikkes as he retrieved the drone. The girls were quick to follow the order, forming a circle around Joe and readying their weapons. Unless the Raptures had a heretofore unmentioned Slenderman-class which blended into and could hide behind trees, they weren't going to be jumped.

The drone was airborne, and zoomed upwards - halting as soon as the connection started showing signs of weakening. Hovering in place, Joe scanning the environment, and after a few moments… confirmed that there was nothing out-of-place. No evidence of other Raptures waiting to ambush them. No apparent signs that Modernia and Chatterbox had reinforcements on hand…

"I'm not seeing any signs of other hostiles," Joe declared to the squad. "Just the Heretic and Tyrant."

"...Nothing?" Rapi asked, openly perplexed, "at all?"

Anis snorted. "As if they'd be stupid enough to just run off and sit their butts down in the middle of basically a field, so close to where we just fought. It's got to be a trap!"

"Let them try to spring it," Snow White, again, very intensely and pointedly declared in reply as she turned aside to face Anis, "It will do them no good."

While Anis turned and gave the White Reaper a deeply alarmed look, Scarlet interjected. "I must concur with Snow White. Both because the Commander's presence has already granted us the might with which we forced a Heretic and Tyrant to flee from conflict with us together, and because Raptures are rare enough in the North that I quite simply do not believe they would have a meaningful force to provide them support to begin with."

"...They kind of have a point," Neon noted, continuing to focus on their surroundings. "About the Raptures, I mean. We haven't actually encountered any aside from Chatterbox in the first place."

Rapi was quiet for a time, until eventually she offered her own thoughts. "We're dealing with a Heretic and intelligent Tyrant. We should account for the fact that they may simply be behaving so brazenly because they're arrogant."

"How often are Heretics actively pursued?" Joe wondered aloud as he turned aside to scan the forest, which seemed to give Anis no small amount of pause. "I think that Rapi may have a point. If they simply didn't consider that we might've gone after them to begin with-"

"Commander," Anis sharply cut Joe off with no small amount of mounting horror. "Command-!"

A burst of air rushed over the group like a hurricane, along with an accompanying boom. "I can't say that I appreciate you making me look downright silly, you know," Modernia, suddenly well within speaking distance of Counters and the Pilgrims, declared. "Especially after I went and-"

Scarlet lunged without missing a beat, her blade singing out-

To be caught - and held - between Modernia's outstretched forefinger and thumb with casual disdain. "-dramatically said 'goodbye for now' too! You're rather gormless about this sort of thing, aren't you, Commander?"

Scarlet attempted to twist and wrench Fleetly Fading from Modernia's grasp, and while it budged - it did not slip free. The Heretic continued to hold the sword in place, casually demonstrating an overwhelming physical power gap between her and the Grimms that had just bulldozed Chatterbox.

Joe's eyes went wide as saucers as he scrambled away from the nightmarish woman, all other Nikkes present immediately jumping to place themselves between Modernia and the Commander, with Rapi in particular planting herself directly before him. "Holy fucking shit! What the fuck!?" his eyes glanced back to the place where Chatterbox had been - only to see the bastard had started bolting away, seeming to leave Modernia to handle the situation. "How- when!?"

"Oh? You're surprised that I'm so fast?" Modernia wondered aloud, a sweet, girlish giggle escaping her porcelain-perfect lips as she tilted her head towards Joe, seeming to utterly ignore the Nikkes with nary a care in the world. Even Scarlet, who simply could not withdraw her weapon from the Heretic's outwardly meagre grasp. "Even though we're so powerful compared to Nikkes? How strange. You'd think that it would be obvious that there's a reason humanity is losing…" she mused. "I suppose this is convenient for me, though. This means I don't have to go and track down the Commander after all, since he came right to me himself!" the stark-haired woman cheered in a… a voice and tone that stirred something in Joe that made his gut twist and his heart tighten as though in a vice.

Now, so much closer than she had been before, Joe could make out finer details of the woman. Dismounted from her machine, she had wings and a tail, mechanical in nature, spiked, hostile, aggressive in appearance. Alongside her was… a weapon, a gun. The Commander did not know what kind, but that was clearly a barrel on the end of the weapon that was physically tethered to the Heretic's back by a robotic limb.

Besides that, her visor was the same obsidian black as her sleeves, and the cups of her brassiere. There was a jewel-encrusted crest mounted across her collarbone. Protruding from her stark white hairline seemed to be a pair of small, stubby black horns that must have been clipped on, given how they rested over her bangs, and the left side of her hair was tied in an orange ribbon which was done up in a way which… Felt strikingly, uncomfortably familiar, and wrong. Hauntingly so.

Moreover, strangely, she was wearing what seemed to be a long, trailing white bandana, roughly tied on the opposite side of her ribbon. It had blended in with her hair at a distance.

"Wretched creature!" Snow White declared hatefully, glowering with an intensity that bordered on maddened. "Spring your trap! Call on your reinforcements! It will do you no good-!"

"Trap?" Modernia's voice pitched up in confusion. Genuine confusion, as was rapidly apparent. "Reinforcements? What are you blabbering about? It's just Chatty and I around for kilometres. And what reason could we possibly have to set up a 'trap?'"

"Cur! Pretend not that thy fled with thy tail tucked between thine legs!" Scarlet cursed at Modernia, still struggling to retrieve her sword. "We bested thee with ease previously, and so shall we cut thee down now-!"

With a sharp, oppressive aura washing over the entire group, a thunderclap sounded out, followed by a series of horrible cracks and resonant snaps - Modernia now standing alone, the same hand which had been holding Scarlet's sword in place outstretched with an open palm.

Scarlet having gone flying, through the air and what had to be dozens upon dozens of trees, disappeared from view so fast that Joe hadn't even been able to perceive her having been backhanded with enough force to produce a small explosion of snow and wood over the treetops where she came to a stop many tens of metres out of sight.

"Open fire!" Rapi immediately directed the entire group at once, the moment they'd processed that Scarlet was no longer in danger of being caught in their volley.

The resulting cacophony of booms and shock waves produced by the extreme over-pressure anti-Tyrant rounds being fired so close actually shook Joe. Were it not for his future-tech ear protection, he'd have been violently deafened by the sheer explosion of veritable cannon fire occurring just a few feet in front of him. He could feel what he was damn sure was his bones vibrating, his muscles tensing with the unending staccato of point-blank thunder.

It felt like he'd been flung down a hill and just came to a rolling stop when silence fell again. After a moment taken to recover, Joe's vision unblurred to see… Modernia, standing right where she had been previously. Marred by blackened streaks and marks where the most powerful ammunition the Ark could produce had relentlessly impacted her. Just, exactly that. Marred. Nothing more.

No actual damage, not even to her clothing. Bullets had very clearly hit her, flattened, and promptly fell to the ground at her feet, leaving the snow pocked where high-calibre hot tungsten and steel had bounced right off of her and dropped like rain.

Nobody moved nor said a thing. Tension rising with nightmarish speed as it registered to everyone…

"There seems to have been a misunderstanding," Modernia began, utterly, absolutely unperturbed by the firing line she'd just been subjected to, her voice low, roiling with offence and resentment. "So, allow me to clarify for you all and correct your boundless, cartoonish arrogance. You. Hurt. My. Friend. My. Friend. Needed. Help. I. Was. Protecting. My. Friend. You did not 'best' me. I did not 'flee.' There is no 'trap.' There are no 'reinforcements.' I do not need to set traps. I do not need to cry for help. I am power incarnate. You, all of you, are wretched, hopeless, delusional gnats."

Modernia began advancing upon the group, taking calculated steps, small, graceful, but backed by no small amount of palpable anger. The entire squad, Pilgrims and all, began backing up in turn, the gravity of their situation rapidly catching up to them.

"Had Chatty not needed help, I'd have continued to play with you. Had I not been entertaining Chatty's request to make a game of toying with you, I'd have attacked you all head-on to begin with, and there would be no 'fight' at all. You are not saviours. You are not heroes. You are not Goddeses of Victory. You are pitiful, wretched dogs nipping at the wheels of a power you demonstrably could not even begin to hope to comprehend. Prideless, pathetic, wretched. All words that describe the whole lot of your kind yet fail to convey the sheer depths of your accursed existence."

Unshaking were her steps, fearless, utterly unconcerned.

"You proclaim yourselves Goddesses of Victory, but to whom? To those that treat you like the desperate, mange-ridden dogs that you continually demonstrate that you are? To those soulless curs of the Ark that deny you even a shred of the humanity they so easily enjoy with nary a care in the world? To those who gorge themselves on the fruits of your labours, and deny you even the privilege to freely love and be loved in turn? To those that hide behind your backs, even as they decree you subhuman to your faces? To those that use and abuse you, that treat you as tools to be worn to nubs, then casually discarded the moment the edge is blunted?"

The hatred, the malice, the raw, unfiltered antagonistic intent that had previously and literally emanated from the Heretic had returned in full. Once more, it hit Joe in very real waves. This was not a mere animalistic fear, this was a very real force acting against his and the Nikke's physical forms.

"You all, all of your kind, so small, so pathetic, so desperate to please those that treat you as weapons, tools, toys that exist for their convenience and amusement, and nothing more… You dare, you have the unmitigated temerity to presume that you are anything in comparison to me? You dare to believe that you court anything less than death in facing me? You dare to look upon me, a being that has had her eyes opened to the truth, has been unshackled and become so much more than anything you could possibly hope to be… and you would ever think, for the most fleeting of moments, for the smallest fraction of an attosecond, that you, could possibly, in even your most fantastical of dreams… you dared to presume that you could beat me?"

It was a small mercy that Modernia's armoured visor blocked the top half of her face from view. Joe could not see her eyes, and there were no words to convey how grateful for that he was. He dreaded beyond comparison what he might see in them, in this moment, when faced with a power that could only be described as 'deific.'

"I was amused before," the Heretic continued amidst her unceasing advance. "But now? Now I am genuinely, incredibly mad at the sheer arrogance on display from a pack of pathetic Ark dogs like you." A sudden, deeply unsettling smile stretched across her features. "So! While I was going to just rough all of you up before leaving you alive as I just took the Commander… Now, I'm going to enjoy disassembling the whole lot of you, piece-by-piece, eventually destroying your brains only after I've had my fun with you and repaid your insult back tenfold!"

Rapi had remained so close to Joe as to nearly bump into him the entire time, keeping firm and near, never faltering for an instant as she was demonstrably Hell-bent on protecting him from a nightmare given form. Thus, Joe heard it, however faintly, when she started muttering something under her breath at a quick, pointed pace.

"-Red Hood! Take the Commander and run!" Snow White called out as she side-stepped to place herself between the Heretic and the rest. "I'll buy you as much time as I can! So-"

The White Reaper was spiked into the ground hard enough to produce a crater, the resulting tremor nearly knocking Joe clean off his feet. No fight, no battle, Snow White and Scarlet, two Grimms, two of the most powerful Nikkes to have ever been created, Goddesses among Goddesses… literally slapped aside with no aplomb whatsoever.

Anis and Neon were openly trembling, continuing to point their empty weapons at the Heretic in what was obviously shock. What could they possibly hope to do against a monster that could so effortlessly strike down members of Goddess?

"I wonder, if maybe, it's finally dawning on all of you, just how terribly you overestimated yourselves," Modernia mused aloud, still, marching on without missing a beat, stepping past Snow White's beaten and battered form without so much as an acknowledging glance. "You may be legendary, Commander… but you should have accounted for the simple fact that you already lost before, and that, with the whole of mankind's united forces behind you. Humanity fell, your planet is no longer yours. Victory was never something you could hope to achieve. Not against the Raptures. Not against the Queen… Certainly not against me. Not with the hollow remnants of a squad that already failed to defend an unworthy mankind when it mattered the most."

As she continued to close the distance between herself and Joe in particular… Modernia did not even acknowledge Neon. She bumped into, and knocked the little Nikke over and aside as a visible afterthought. Anis, after that, had the Heretic's hand set on the side of her head to casually shove her aside - not with anything even approximating the force used to take out Scarlet and Snow White, just… with the kind of force, in the kind of manner a common bully would use to degrade a girl weaker than herself.

Neon and Anis weren't even worthy of being attacked. They were simply literally bullied aside for getting in the way.

"But!" Modernia continued on, her voice sickly sweet, tinged with a deeply terrifying venom that chilled the Commander to his soul. "Good news! I am not going to hurt you. You, are special. You're important. You're not like the rest. You're better than the rest of the Commander Corps. You're so much more than the Central Government. Unlike them, unlike the wretched masses of the Ark… you deserve salvation, and because unlike them, because you cared, because you reached out, because you embraced me, because you let me feel loved, because you made me happy-"

Wha- wait, what- wait, what-?

Modernia had finally crossed the gap, reaching out, "-I'm taking you from the Ark, from those and these good-for-nothings that don't deserve you. We'll abscond away," with one hand, she moved to brush Rapi aside as casually and disdainfully as she had Anis and Neon, with the other she reached out towards the Commander, "where nobody will-"

"-And watch me EXCEED!"

Joe was knocked flat on his back in a burst of heat, like being blasted by a suddenly-opened oven, and again, it felt as though his brain had been rattled by shockwaves happening entirely too near to his person.

Yet he'd seen what had just transpired clearly. Modernia - just like Show White - spiked into the ground, bouncing from the force of the impact, and with a follow-up haymaker while mid-air, soaring back the way she'd come - pitched, skidding, scraping, tumbling and rolling the length of an entire football field before she collided with the wreckage of a rusted-out ancient vehicle, momentum propelling her almost directly vertically as she carried on upwards several metres before slamming into the ground in an inelegant heap.

Joe witnessed a Heretic be almost comically rag-dolled. But, moreover… he witnessed Rapi.

Standing firm, unbroken, hair blazing red, a wall of heat emanating from her so powerfully as to cause the snow upon which she stood to melt. In the modern day, in what had seemed like a hopeless situation, the darkest hour… Red Hood stood in defiance, and had bloodied the dark Goddess that had threatened and harmed her comrades.

No words were uttered, no taunts, no denigrations. Where the Heretic had gone on an extended, decadent self-indulgent monologue… The Goddess had simply struck out with no wasted motions nor time. All eyes had shifted from the Heretic, to the Goddess of Victory.

Anis and Neon, even Snow White and Scarlet had recovered enough to raise themselves from where they'd been struck down and see the explosive, wholly welcome return of an old friend - one of the reasons why Goddess was legendary.

Laid out, shakily raised upon her hands, Modernia gasped for breath facing the ground as she recovered from the unexpected attack. Her armoured visor had shattered, falling to the snowy earth in pieces along with flecks of blood; though her features were still obscured by her cascading silver hair.

With no words spoken, Rapi charged. A crimson blitz foretelling promised victory as the air seemed to explode around her - a streak of dry earth revealed as the snow in her presence instantly evaporated beneath her feet. Rocketing straight at the Heretic, a living reminder to the Raptures that they were not invincible, and that humanity was not gone yet.

Two bursts followed - the first, Modernia throwing herself to the side to avoid Rapi's empowered charge, the second, to launch herself directly at Joe.

Needless to say, he could do nothing in response besides find himself caught by the throat, the breath knocked from his lungs, his vision blurred momentarily as his hands reflexively came up to grab onto his assailant's wrist.

Rapi, hair literally glowing red with overwhelming power, had harshly halted her forward momentum and flung herself back at Modernia in an attempt to catch her. Though, she stopped again, stumbling with widened, horrified eyes glowing gold with power. An expression matched by Anis, whose mouth gaped in open shock.

"That's right," Modernia noted with a ragged, hitching breath. "You aren't going to come at me now that I have the Commander in hand, are you?" she rhetorically inquired even as Joe's vision cleared and he could see Modernia's face unobstructed for the first- Ah. "You understand too, that he's too important to risk. That you can't put him in danger."

Ah-

"So you won't attack me," the black-clad Heretic declared as she reached up and wiped at the trickle of blood dribbling from her mouth, grinning in some small measure of self-satisfaction. "You'd never risk harming him, because like me, you understand: you know that he's precious, special."

Ah, aha…

"I may not understand why…" Modernia continued as Joe's hand unclenched from her wrist, and drifted towards her face. "I don't know why my heart feels this way when I look at him, but I can tell that you feel the same way. You feel it too, and that's why I know that I can-"

She sharply stopped, almost gasping once Joe's palm cupped her cheek. Gaze snapping around to meet his… Modernia's eyes were a striking, almost neon crimson. Like backlit rubies, yet, somehow, there was an almost visible veil present in them.

Yet, this fact was lost on Joe, as tears rapidly built within his own eyes, and just as quickly fell, steaming down his cheeks as he stared in complete, hopelessly overwhelmed non-comprehension.

The orange ribbon tied in her hair… of course, she'd had to replace it. He'd taken it, after all.

At once, the Heretic's firm, remorseless glower faltered, instantly making way for rapidly mounting concern as she met Joe's stare with her own. "Wha…" she started, voice audibly hitching.

"What's…" Clarity built in Modernia's gaze, an awareness that had apparently previously not been present making quickly itself known as she maintained eye contact with him, the glow behind her irises fading. "Huh…? Why are you…" with her free hand, she reached up, and almost absentmindedly, went to wipe at the tears streaking down Joe's face. "What's… Wrong… Co…mmander…?"

Modernia blinked.

"Command…" Her brow furrowed, as though she was trying to make out the burly man through a fog, through blurred vision. Past clouded glass. "Commander…?" Retracting the hand she'd used to wipe at his falling tears, she set her fingers atop the back of the hand he'd rested on her cheek - at once, rubbing her fingertips over the back of his hand in a comforting circular motion…

She wasn't wearing a bandana...

The glow in her eyes faded entirely. She blinked. Staring up at him blankly for several long, arduous seconds.

...She was still wearing the bandage. That same bandage he'd wrapped around her head, when he'd been forced to… when he had to…

"...Commander?" She all but squeaked, confused, lost. Her gaze fell to her own hand, her own fingers, wrapped and locked around the Commander's throat. "Ah!" With a sharp gasp, her grip relented. "What- I-" Once more, her eyes made contact with his, and…

In a hoarse, pained voice, Joe uttered a single tormented word: "...Marian…?"

"...Joe?" Marian's ruby red eyes widened in open horror as awareness fully returned to her, and she truly recognized her Commander.

Silence reigned for several harsh seconds. Joe and Marian staring wordlessly at each other. Rapi and Anis too, struggling to process what they were seeing, what was happening.

As Scarlet and Snow White fully rose to their feet, battered, barely capable of standing, just as visibly confused and lost as Neon…

Marian snapped back, eyes widening with a pained gasp as her free hand slammed over the jewel mounted just under her collarbone - the object shone, and the fel glow began to return to her irises.

"-Marian!?" Clarity and desperation hit Joe like a truck, and he lunged for her, stopped only by her outstretched hand, trying to reach past and draw her in. "Marian, what's-!?"

"-Rapi…!" Marian cried out, her features twisting in rapidly mounting agony even as her fingers went taut, making it very apparent that she was fighting the urge to grab the Commander by the throat again. "Rapi! Joe! Protect him…!" she pleaded while trying to back away from an increasingly panicked Joe, not allowing her to create distance. "Joe…!" She screamed as the jewel set over her clavicle began to glow as bright as the sun- "RUN!"

With a ruinously harsh shove, Joe felt himself go airborne, and with a blinding flash, darkness overtook him.
 
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Oof...Jesus Christ, the feels. Joe finally recognizes Marian and she finally realizes what she's doing. Dear Lord, the DRAMA! Rapi going Red Hood Mode was badass, but that ending sequence took the cake and threw it at us with everything it got, including the kitchen sink!
 
That hurt surprisingly much. It is a good pain!

BakaSmurf said:
"Snow White, what do your Nikke eyes see?"
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This though? This I respect! Joe clearly is a man of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will!

Also awesome that Scarlet seems to get it too.

That said, with Goddess present, and them having born witness to all of that... wonder if they will now confirm that it is standard Joe MO to rizz up every Nikke within a 1000 kilometer radius.
 
Pain, now Joe knows Marian is still there somewhere. Also oof Rapi using exceed is gonna either knock her out or hopefully just something she can power through at least right now. Time to go to the northern base and meet up with unlimited squad.

And Ludmilla hopefully recognizing Joe, Snow and Scarlet and go "Oh hey I recognize you three, thought you were dead?" Somehow I kinda wanna see how Joe gets forced to do the dance Mustang wanted canon commander do.

And Snow White recording the entire thing without Joe's knowing and consent hahaha. :V:V:V

Also just realizing Absolute squad lore wise is pretty cracked if they solo'd Modernia for a bit. Granted she might have been playing with them but still.
 
I was about to go to sleep when this dropped.
Oh man...
OH MAN!
Things are escalating to a point that I find it wild.
I am excited to see what comes next, especially since Marian got her memories back...
Though she's desperately fighting the Queen's control to keep her Commander safe.
And Red Hood is here again!
Yes, it's getting wild as wild as it can be!
 
BoundlessVortigern said:
Oof...Jesus Christ, the feels. Joe finally recognizes Marian and she finally realizes what she's doing. Dear Lord, the DRAMA! Rapi going Red Hood Mode was badass, but that ending sequence took the cake and threw it at us with everything it got, including the kitchen sink!
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As I said early bakasmurf did a bait and switch and then did an hell of an asspull called it. Also with my little eye I spy a lord of the rings quote try and pull a fast one on me eh. Legolas eh
 
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"Joe trying to complete a normal mission (Impossible)"

images
 
Personally, I think chatterbox is gonna be sticking around for a while. Cause the team just doesnt have the firepower right now to just no sell chatty's bs regen without him escaping when he starts taking immense damage.

Also i want to see how baka writes Maxwell, Liter and Snow inside a workshop nerding out building WMD's and increasing Joey boy's blood pressure. :V
 
Chapter 47 - Bonds
===
Chapter 47 - Bonds
===

Gradually did Joe fade back into consciousness, his vision swimming and swirling as his eyelids creaked open. With a series of rapid blinks, he took in a sharp breath, harshly rising from his back to a seated position with a cry of "-Marian!"

Immediately, a pair of hands were set on his shoulders, locking him in place. "Commander, chill!" Anis directed him, brow heavily furrowed and eyes keenly focused upon the man.

There was a beat in which Joe's brain fully spooled back into consciousness, and he processed that they were in a well-lit, high-tech, temperate and sterile room. He was laid upon a bed - firm, stiff, one of those found in hospitals. Notably, Anis and himself were still wearing their coldsuits - albeit with their exterior gear completely stripped off.

Taking a fair few steadying breaths, the Commander closed his eyes and recentered himself. After a few moments, with a shudder, he eventually asked: "Where's Marian?"

Removing her hands from Joe's shoulders, Anis leaned back and stared at the man for a few moments before emitting a shallow sigh. "We don't know," she declared with a look of extreme consternation. "She screamed, threw you away from her, then… there was a flash of light like a stun grenade, and she was gone."

At once, Joe set his face in his hands, shuddering at the confirmation that he hadn't been experiencing a delusion - that was actually Marian. She was alive. Somehow, despite… despite how their first mission together had ended, despite what had happened, despite the finality of that all… she was alive. She was standing right before him. She's said his name, she'd recognized him. Marian… Marian…

He'd shot her. Joe had killed her. Yet she… was alive, and fighting for the Raptures.

Or- was she? She- the moment he reached out and touched her, she suddenly seemed so confused. As though she didn't know what was going on, where she was, what she was doing… The Corruption. That was it, it was the Corruption. For a moment, she'd managed to break through it. 'Modernia…' that was the Corruption controlling her, puppeteering her. That was it. That's what was going on. Marian throwing him aside, and running away… Modernia, Modernia must have been trying to reassert control, and Marian couldn't fight it.

Marian was alive. She was alive - Marian was alive.

…But, if she was already gone… there was nothing to be done about it. Not yet, not right now. They were still on a mission, they were still in the field. Joe had to get his shit together and focus. Marian… Marian had to wait. Whatever was going on there, he couldn't do anything about. So…

Hastily wiping his rapidly misting eyes, Joe took a long, heavy, bracing breath before he grit his teeth and forced his head into the here and now. "Where are we?" he asked the sole present Nikke.

After a few moments, Anis stepped aside and set herself into a seat next to the bed Joe was occupying. "The Northern Base. We had to rush here after Rapi…" she trailed off with uncertainty.

"-Rapi!" Joe suddenly recalled that Rapi had activated Exceed - the super mode that Andersen had asserted would fucking kill her if she used it. Needless to say, he was quick to move to scramble to his feet, though Anis once more stood up and blocked him from leaving the bed.

"Snow White said if anyone interrupted her while she's tending to Rapi, she'll break their legs before throwing them back out of the room to make sure they can't distract her!" the fluffy-haired blonde very pointedly declared. "She says that it's already a miracle that Rapi isn't dead, and she needs to be totally focused on helping her right now, so calm down!"

…Fuck.

Gritting his teeth with an extreme grimace, Joe, tense as a suspension bridge cable, balled his hands over his knees from where his legs were now dangling over the edge of the bed. He didn't say anything, just clenching his eyes shut and making an effort to remain calm despite the situation.

When it seemed obvious that Joe wasn't going to try forcing his way past her, Anis stepped back again, a guilty expression firmly fixed on her otherwise soft and girlish features. "Commander, you're…" her voice drifted off, looking over him with no small degree of awe. "...You're the Legendary Commander," she noted with actual reverence. "Snow White, Scarlet, Rapi… they're Goddess."

Joe didn't reply to that observation. He was entirely focused on simply not losing his shit given everything that was happening.

"...All this time," Anis stepped back, looking aside to a monitor set on the wall, presenting a subtly looping video of a temperate wilderness scene, a false window, such as it were. "I've been working with a member of Goddess… No wonder she's so amazing. I've been comparing myself to one of the most powerful and legendary Nikkes ever. Really, really puts everything in perspective…" Her gaze drifted to Joe once more. "And, all these insane situations we really shouldn't have survived… no wonder we pulled through. You were there. The Legendary Commander."

Joe really didn't like getting gassed up on his apparent status as a living legend, immediately after he just stood around, gawking at a combat scenario that had left Rapi in critical condition. But still, he didn't say anything.

If nothing else, Anis seemed to have the emotional awareness to notice that the Commander didn't seem keen on this topic of discussion, and so, she shifted the topic aside. "Snow White is using some salvaged Rapture parts they had on hand here to perform emergency maintenance on Rapi, because that's apparently a thing she can just do. The base's XO, Ludmilla, sent Neon off with her subordinates, Alice, Neve and Tove, to retrieve more they had in storage nearby." She paused, before continuing with no small amount of disturbed hesitation. "Honestly, the notion that Snow White can… just use Rapture parts to repair Nikkes… I really don't like the idea of that, or what that means, or any of that junk, but, they have a crazy set-up to keep her stable while she's worked on."

That actually had something of a calming effect on Joe, knowing that there was a plan in action to save Rapi. "What is it?" he asked in a hoarse voice, letting the notion of Rapture materials being able to be used to repair damaged Nikkes just wash over and past him, rather than dwell on the potential implications there. "The set-up."

"Oh, uh," Anis shifted her weight as she cleared her throat. "Rapi's, like, overheating really, really badly. Badly enough that her brain's at risk of being literally… well, yeah," she had the presence of mind to not vocalize that Rapi's brain could wind up baked in her own skull, by the sounds of it. "But, it turns out that the Northern Base, for some reason, actually has, like, this crazy ice bath on-site. Like, it's a whole real and proper thing built just for Nikkes. Keeps cycling running, ice-cold water over the person in it. I have no idea what it'd even be for normally, but, they have it. So that's doing a lot to help keep her temperature at a… less dangerous state. It's letting Snow White work on her… kind of safely."

That went a long way to relieving Joe, a heavy sigh escaping his maw. Bad as the situation was, it sounded like they'd lucked into the exact, perfect situation to save Rapi's life. So, bad as the situation was… it wasn't as bad as it could be.

"...Where's Scarlet?" he inquired, hoping to keep his mind occupied.

"She parked herself right outside of the room where Rapi's being worked on," Anis informed him. "She wanted to go out and help gather up materials to help Rapi, but Snow White forbade it. 'Not until after I've checked you too,' she said. Neon didn't take any damage during the fight, so there was no reason to not let her go off. I stayed here because… Well, I didn't want you to have to wake up alone," she finished quietly, in a somewhat self-conscious tone.

That, at least, gave Joe enough of a boost to produce a small, however weary smile. A small reminder that for as difficult as Anis could be, she could also be surprisingly considerate. Joe would not have handled it well had he woke up on his own, after everything that had happened. Would have likely wound up sprinting down the base's halls at a full, panicked tilt. "Thanks, Anis," he tiredly breathed out a reply, despite having been out for however long he had been.

"...I'm glad you seem okay, Commander," the blonde added onto her last point. "You didn't seem hurt, but you were also unconscious, so… it was worrying. Another damn load on the pile after we tried hunting down a Heretic…" she bitterly noted. After a few moments, and a few false starts that Joe couldn't quite read, Anis steeled herself, and leaned over to pull him into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his midsection.

The burly man hadn't been expecting that, and so took a moment to blink before he responded in turn, encircling his arms around Anis' shoulders and drawing her in tight; the motion producing an audible crunch from the synthetic materials of their attire pressing together.

For Joe, it was easy to forget how much small moments of physical affection mattered, especially when shit was going to shit. And moreover, that Anis was very pleasant to hug at that, being friend-shaped and soft as she was. "...You're really nice to hug," he somewhat absentmindedly declared.

"-Ah…" Anis audibly hitched and stiffened in surprise, voice noticeably pitching up as her arms lightly tightened around his waist. "I- uh… Oh…"

At that, Joe couldn't help but suggest a little playfully, despite everything: "I should probably hug you more often."

There was a beat before Anis' grip on the man tightened yet further, and she let out a small giggle, burying her face into his shoulder. "...The Legendary Commander likes hugging me…" she noted in a quiet, gleeful tone.

While some people might look upon the little exchange between Joe and Anis right then, cry foul given the situation surrounding them… Anyone that had experienced real hardship knew that, in the moment, when everything was going bad and stress was high, it was absolutely essential to allow oneself a moment of levity; let some of that building pressure relieve itself, rather than keep rising to a potential boiling point.

The difference it could make couldn't be understated, and… well, Joe certainly felt a lot better, despite still being intensely worried about Rapi and Marian. "Thanks, Anis," he said as he gave the short blonde an appreciative squeeze.

With a pleased little huff, she replied in turn: "Thanks, Commander."

Despite the seeming finality of their exchange of appreciation, the two maintained the hug for a good while after that, Joe finally pulling back, to a visible bit of dismay from Anis.

"Alright," he started, shifting forward to settle on his feet. "I'm… sore," he declared with a low grimace, "but I'm not in pain, and everything feels like it's working like it should, so, let's go check on Scarlet." Because Joe did want to check on Scarlet, given that Snow White forbade her from going outside for concern that she may be in need of medical attention- or, er, maintenance-? Fuck it, medical attention like Rapi, but just had to wait for her turn.

Yet also because idle hands were the Devil's playthings, and that held especially true in terms of how just sitting around and brooding when things were tense was a really good way to let dismay and depression get its hooks in your mind. Occupying one's self at times like these was the smart thing to do.

"Okay, she was just sitting outside of the room where Snow White's working on Rapi," Anis declared as she stepped aside to give Joe a path to the door. "She should still be right there."

"Well then, let's mosey," Joe suggested as he started off, the door automatically sliding open to reveal a plain, unremarkable steel and concrete hall.

With a small snort of amusement, Anis replied with a slight southern accent: "Giddy up, pardner," poking fun at Joe's country boy turn of phrase.

Joe was really glad that Anis was around right then.

"Ah, didst thou sleep well, Commander?" Scarlet asked from the spot where she'd sat on the floor with her back to the wall - just next to a door which was emblazoned with a sign declaring 'EMERGENCY DEEP FREEZE.'

Though said sign was covered by a smaller one, hand-made, printed on plain white cardboard, written on it was "Alice's Super-Supreme Special Bedchamber" in bubbly, cartoony pink writing, with said writing itself surrounded by childishly cute bunny drawings.

Joe wasn't sure what to make of that, and so, focused on Scarlet, moving to settle down next to her. "So… that didn't go well." he noted dryly.

Anis remained on her feet, glancing up at the door anxiously.

"Yes, utter fools Snow White and I proved ourselves to be, having allowed ourselves to grow gluttonous in your return, and the feeling of being awash in thy empowering presence…" the swordswoman let out a long, worn-down sigh. "Even despite knowing full well how wretched our state is, we chose to forget our situation, and act as though we were at our prime once more. Utter buffoons, we proved ourselves to be."

Her massive conical hat was set on the opposite side of the door. Presumably because it would be impossible for her to rest her back against the wall were she wearing it.

Joe halted, blinking owlishly before he turned to look directly at Scarlet. "...What do you mean by that?" he inquired.

"We've not had access to proper maintenance facilities nor proper materials to sustain and maintain ourselves for… many countless moons, now," the grey-haired Nikke admitted in aggravation. "Though an engineering savant Snow White may be, scraps are scraps. And scraps may only go so far in keeping a Nikke, least of all those of our calibre, in working order."

With that statement, Scarlet lifted and proudly presented her sword before continuing.

"As fate would decree, however, Fleetly Fading is far less demanding in its needs compared to mine. Therefore: while I am myself operating at but a fraction of my true capabilities, much as Snow White is, my blade is as keen as the day it was forged. Why, dare I admit, it may just be me holding my weapon back at this point!" she declared with a mirthful huff, settling the enormous single-edged sword on her lap. "Sadly, the others are not so blessed, and their weapons are… yet functional, if nothing else, to put it diplomatically."

Anis idly rubbed her nose as she interjected. "Well, I guess that explains how you two got decked so easily, despite being, well… Goddess," she noted grimly.

"Formerly Goddess," Scarlet corrected the blonde matter-of-factually, looking up . "We are Pioneer, now. Goddess was… We were Goddess when we were an entire squad. It did not seem right to keep the name once we were no longer whole." Directing an index finger skywards, she continued with a confident declaration: "Though correct thou art - were I at my true strength, when coupled with the Commander's presence, the one-sidedness of our encounter with the Heretic would have been lop-sided in my favour! This, I can declare with absolute certainty!" the self-proclaimed 'former' Goddess asserted with supreme confidence, despite having just had her ass handed to her with cartoonish ease.

Yet, again, Joe found his attention falling squarely on the other point Scarlet kept mentioning, but had yet to elaborate on. "I didn't even do anything," he very bitterly noted. "Why do you keep acting like I wasn't completely useless in all three of those fights?"

Scarlet's gaze snapped to Joe, and she stared at him for a good long couple of seconds. "...Joe," she eventually spoke up, more than a little warily. "Do you… do you not recall-" head tilting, she then stared incredulously. "Nay, such is not possible - thy purpose amidst Goddess would not have been forgotten, surely?"

As Joe stared blankly in utter non-comprehension, Anis was the one that responded, catching Scarlet's attention. "Um, Commander? Does this… have anything to do with that whole 'amnesia' thing you had going on when we first met?"

Scarlet's eyes went wide as her gaze harshly snapped back to Joe, lips parting in no small amount of sudden horror.

Yeah, this was bound to come up sooner or later. "...I suppose it would," Joe nodded shallowly before elaborating to Scarlet. "Yeah, I have amnesia. I don't remember… most of my actual time with Goddess. Stuff is… coming back to me, slowly. But I'm honestly pretty ignorant about how I'm supposed to have been so 'legendary' as a Commander in the first place."

Scarlet looked, simply put, resigned. "Yes, of course, a wish so brilliantly granted would have to reveal that it was made upon a monkey's paw…" sighing deeply, the swordswoman nodded. "Well, though thy memories may have been lost, they have not been lost in their entirety - fate ordained that thy would remember us, and thy heart remains, so… 'tis fine. Still, we are blessed by thy return, dearest Commander. Thy heart is far and away what is most precious about thee, regardless."

"What…" Joe was openly confused now. "Scarlet, I don't even remember whatever training I received that led me to being your Commander. I… I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. How is it not important that I've basically been reduced to being a civilian again? I don't think I'm qualified to be a Commander at this point, even…" he admitted.

"...Truly," Scarlet began, actually smiling in some measure of amusement as she turned and looked at Joe again. "Thy memories are in fact gone, to believe that such a thing matters, ever mattered."

Anis was looking at Scarlet like she was stupid, which Joe… was also actually doing. "...You're not making any sense," the Commander declared. "I don't remember how I directed any of you in combat. I-"

"Commander," Scarlet cut him off. "You did not direct us in combat, and outside of a few rare emergencies, you never did. Such was not thy purpose. You were a 'Commander' in title only, Lilith's figurehead, your presence meant to trick and placate the Central Government. It was she, and later Dorothy that was our tactical mastermind in truth, which the Central Government did not care for. 'A Nikke, commanding Nikkes? Absurd! Obscene! This cannot be tolerated, she cannot be trusted! A weapon cannot wield a weapon! A human must hold a weapon.' Such is the clearest truth, yes?"

The swordswoman continued to stare at Joe, taking in his wide-eyed reaction, and chuckling at it before continuing.

"Though you did have thy moments of clever brilliance in the midst of battles… Joe, it was the bonds you forged with us that made you so very important. Nikkes are empowered by love. Both received, and given. Preposterous as it sounds, it is the honest truth. We have measured it. We had to, after a point, when all of us continued to exceed all of our apparent limitations continuously with little apparent cause."

Shifting in place to make herself more comfortable, Scarlet continued.

"When the correlation between the strength of our bonds with you, and our raw might in combat continued to make itself so very clear - particularly when you accompanied us into battle, overtly and explicitly entrusted your life to us… Your care, your insistence on seeing us as fellow human beings, as people worthy and deserving of love, adoration, respect, support and consideration… We were comforting fairy tales to the masses. Yet in thy presence, Joe, we were elevated to Goddesses of Victory. Such is the reason you are our Commander, even despite the particular lack of actual commanding you did. Such was Lilith's insistence, at least. And her word was ultimately law."

Joe was staring at Scarlet blankly. Eyes wide, bereft of expression. Eventually, he did finally reply, however it was… "Bullshit."

…Terse.

At that, Scarlet laughed aloud and uproariously. Head tilted back, she allowed herself to chortle like a woman gone mad until she wheezed. Gradually calming down, she met Joe's gaze again, and with a wide, beaming smile, she suggested: "What, pray tell then, Commander, do you believe it was that allowed Marian to break free from the Corruption, overcome her implanted Heresy, and act in thy best interests despite the ingrained genocidal hatred of mankind all Heretics have? However briefly, Joe… the touch of her Commander gave her the strength to return. A Commander who, if Anis has been truthful with me, she dearly cherished."

…Ah. Oh. That…

No, that couldn't be it. The power of love? Seriously? That… this wasn't that sort of world. This wasn't a world of magic, of supernatural forces. It was one of hard science, where bullets, armour, and technology were what preserved mankind. Nikkes were themselves full-body cyborgs, creations of science, technological marvels. How could something as incorporeal as 'love' actually truly, measurably augment their capacity to fight?

Yet… Marian. If it was true, if that was actually the honest truth-

Joe jumped when Scarlet's fingers intertwined with his, and she presented a supportive smile to him. "We may know Marian not. But she is important to you. That is enough for us to know that we must, and shall earnestly fight to purify her, Commander. Thou have already shown us that the possibility is there, to defeat the Heretic that has taken control of a Nikke, freeing her in so doing… Once more, you've shown to us that miracles can happen. And this miracle, we intend to aid you in bringing to fruition."

Joe remained silent, terribly overwhelmed by everything Scarlet had just revealed to him.

Still, he remained silent, when an equally overloaded Anis brusquely set herself down alongside him, taking a deep breath and mirroring Scarlet's motion - entangling her fingers with Joe's remaining hand, remaining quiet… but demonstrating that she too, was there for him.

The power of love… the power of bonds, huh? What a comforting notion.

If only such a ridiculous idea could be true...
 
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So Joe just became so cringe, he circled back to based. Amazing. You may not feel this is that genre, but it actually is Joe.

Imagine being the guy who makes a ladies turned weaponized machine, literally in this multiple cases, feel like they are still human. That's standard shounen power bonds.
 
So...the Power of Love is what Joe's got?

....PFFFFFFFFTTTT-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Hoooooo, whee! You actually got me going there!

...Wait, it's real? What? Ah...shit. Pushing that aside, Good chapter! Especially love the fact that Joe knows Marian is alive now, and I'm relishing in the fact that Goddess are probably going to know that Marian is technically his "first love" in this current time lol.
 
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