Chapter 60.2 - Who Needs Enemies

Who Needs Enemies?
The burning blue crown of Black-Smith melted the ice encapsulating him immediately. As he pulled a gun out his blazer, his colour scheme faded into the black and white of the Stella he controlled. The Desert Eagle pistol quickly morphed with Smith, changing into Seven-Shots, the black plated, blue highlighted pistol of choice of Black★Rock Shooter Beast. Pointing the weapon at Gold but keeping an eye on Dead Master's charging cannon, Smith pulled the trigger as a black and white checkerboard pattern shot across the ice. Gold reacted quickly enough to move Big Saw in the way, Seven-Shots' trademark simultaneous seven bullet barrage striking heavy metal. Gold grimaced under the unexpected tank like force dealt out by each individual bullet when a chain grabbed her right ankle. Black-Smith, now fully in Beast mode, quickly kicked the still frozen Nitori-Smith away from him, leaping in the opposite direction as Dead Master's skull fired its cannon between them, the ceramic checkerboard underneath the beam cracking from the pressure. Smith knew turning the frictionless ice into ceramic was a risky move against The Black Squad but an explosion from above caught his attention.

Ellis grabbed Wesker's collar as he ran away from the edge of the Destiny Ascension's wing towards Neo, "Neo! Move it!"

Neo had barely got to his feet when the wing was slammed from below, Ruyi Jingu Bang smashing through where Ellis had been standing a moment earlier and showering the vicinity with flaming pieces of debris. Ellis fell forwards, as his end of the wing sharply rose, dragging Wesker down with him. Wesker recovered after a few rolls, summoning his silver board to surf down the wing. Ellis took a few more tumbles to regain his bearings, activating his mecha wings. Neo jumped into flight just as the wings dislodged itself from the serrated end of the giant King Saw, grinding downwards with agonising screeches.

"I made you drop the spaceship so you could concentrate on the others," Smith rose to the level in the air, though it was not obvious which Smith it was. Over his shoulder was the unconscious Rumia. "So what are you doing, Mister Anderson?" he asked roughly, but at a calm level, "Why are you letting everyone die?"

"The Director is too strong, Smith," argued Neo.

"That is no excuse. You should be ashamed that I've saved more lives than you have."

Neo did not reply immediately, "In all honesty, I appreciate it, Smith. It is one advantage of The Many over The One."

Smith slipped his hand in his blazer and pulled out a pair of black sunglasses. Offering it to Neo, he retorted, "The many is made of ones."

Neo accepted the gesture, taking the glasses to replace the pair Mio had blasted off earlier, "Thanks-" He was interrupted by a loud boom in the sky. Unlike the explosions above them, this was a recognisable warping noise, similar to a sonic boom. The four of them looked towards its source above the Director's fleet.

Ellis squinted, "Isn't that the Millenium Falcon?" The white spacecraft hovered the naval vessels as a less traditionally shaped Luxiole suddenly appeared next to it, emitting the same noise as it left faster-than-light speed. Then the SSV Normandy SR-1, the SR-2's predecessor, warped next to them, immediately followed by more and more flying craft, most being spaceworthy.

"The Director's brought his second fleet," murmured Wesker. He glanced up at the shrinking fleet of Yggdrasil. "Yggdrasil's brute strength advantage is quickly collapsing."

Ellis turned to Neo, with a determined expression despite the bigger threat, "What can we do?"

Neo had his attention somewhere else. Using his ability to read the falling green characters of the Matrix digital code, he could see the communication within the Director's fleet had dropped considerably. In fact, those on board were now properly using their vessel's radios and other communication systems when they had not been doing previously. He looked at Yggdrasil's fleet to compare. It was a much brighter green as Yggdrasil was attempting to regain control of the remaining ships, realising Skynet had other plans. Two objects in the sky stood out even brighter, flooding data outwards. One was Emiri. The other was a diving Yuki. "Skynet!" he cried, full of fury, "Explain yourself!"

"What?!" panicked Ellis, looking around at what Neo was mad about, "What's the matter?"

"Skynet just executed a kill order," stated Smith, far calmer than Neo.

"A kill order?" repeated Wesker, "Who's Skynet trying to kill off?"

"There's a whole list consisting of things and people powerful enough to put a dent in Skynet's plans, irrespective of who controls them."

"Why now? What does that mean for us?"

Smith looked at The Director's fleets. The fronts of the sea and air fleet were accelerating towards them and Yggdrasil's fleet. However, the rear ends of both fleets were turning around, clearly attempting to flee. "The Director has lost both his fleets. And that means I've got to work faster," he replied as Rumia's body turned black.

Yuki landed right behind Flandre at the bow of The Flying Dutchman, the ghost ship jolting nose down and the wooden planks of the deck snapping from the sudden impact. Before Psycho Mantis could react, Yuki bit Flandre on the back of the neck, injecting digital nanomachines into the vampire's bloodstream. They got to work very quickly, paralysing Flandre's body and preventing her from clicking her fingers, her thumb close to completing its regeneration.

With Flandre removed as the main threat, Yuki grabbed the invisible string controlling Flandre's right elbow and tugged downwards but not before Psycho Mantis detached his strings controlling Flandre. He turned to flee as fast as his telekinesis would let him but was clearly not fast enough as a shining white lease wrapped round his left wrist and slammed him back down onto the deck, his invisibility suit fuzzing back into view. Yuki quickly retracted the lease and took hold of his wrist, her knee smashing down on his right hand. Psycho Mantis could do nothing as his fingers split into pixels, fading into the dark sky, slowly followed by his arms.

Mantis breathed hoarsely through his gas mask, "What... are you doing to me?"

Yuki ignored him, standing back up, turning her attention to the immobile vampire who could see Psycho Mantis being deleted. Flandre could not show it but for the first time ever, she feared for her existence.

Emiri ignored Neo's cry only to be grabbed at the throat through a gap. The gap widened to allow an infuriated Yukari through, "Sky. Net. What. Are. You. Doing," the youkai threatened, pulling their faces closer together.

Emiri stared right back into Yukari's eyes, "Fixing your mistakes."

Haruhi was furious but was quickly losing her focus as she and Sasaki continued to fall at high speed, struggling to breath. She desperately needed Sasaki to let go of her left ankle and fast. Gulping, she drew back her right foot and stamped at Sasaki as hard as she could at her head. But her assault was blocked by a stream of silver liquid from below, wrapping itself round her feet and legs, preventing any contact with Sasaki. The liquid began to take shape as Len's upper body morphed out of it.

"Director! Sasaki!" he called over the howling wind, "Let go of Haruhi!" Sasaki opened one of her eyes, strained by the violent spinning and falling, but did not let go of Haruhi's ankle. In desperation, Len grabbed Sasaki's fingers and pried her right hand off Haruhi, easily overpowering her. Sasaki tried to grab hold of Haruhi again but Len caught her wrist before she could. With one hand, Len pulled Sasaki's remaining left hand off Haruhi. As soon as Sasaki lost physical contact, Haruhi disappeared and Sasaki rapidly slowed her descent to start hovering in the air again. With her powers back, she had caught Len's arm before he had fallen too far from the sudden stop.

"You are an interesting specimen, Skynet," she declared.

Len switched on his rocket boots, his legs reformed, and hovered to Sasaki's eye level, "We've talked over this before, Director. We might all be players in your twisted game but some players are more important than others." He jabbed Sasaki in the chest with his finger, "Leave Sasaki and Haruhi alone. Why don't you listen to what we say anymore?"

Sasaki pushed Len's hand to one side with her arm, "I listen to ideas. Not plain orders."

"So, will you be listening to my kill order then?"

There was a short pause as Sasaki, or the Director, thought, "I will listen to your kill order. I understand the idea behind it. And I agree it would be beneficial for all of us."

"Also, I need to control all of your Infec-"

Sasaki grabbed Len by the collar, absolutely livid, "I have another idea," she threatened, "How about all of you leave my Infected alone."

Yuki was slammed backwards onto the deck of The Flying Dutchman to find Haruhi sitting on her torso, The Hand Canon pointed at her face. "Give me a reason not to shoot Yuki right now," threatened Haruhi.

"Psycho Mantis was dangerous," negotiated Yuki, "He could control anyone susceptible to telekinesis like Flandre who, I remind you, has power over destruction. We are lucky the Director destroyed Gungnir first. Who next would he destroy? You? Us? The Director? We need to protect ourselves. Your interaction with Sasaki made her lose control of the spread of Green Flu and as you can now see, The Director has lost control of everyone, except for Sasaki." Inadvertently proving Skynet's point, Mio walked up behind the still frozen Flandre and placed down her bass amp, Flandre between Mio and Haruhi. She plugged in a cord into the amp and steadied her bass guitar. "Those that can permanently ruin our futures need to be removed from the board."

"By permanently killing them?" growled Haruhi.

"Surely you know better than us that the Convenience Theory has assured that there will be ways to bring them back to life," Yuki retorted, following Skynet's personality more and more by the second, "You already have many such items and people under your control."

"And then what if Anti-Doomsday happens right now, huh?!" shouted Haruhi, "Tens of thousands of natives will be left without their lives, the rest will traumatised, thirty countries are almost fully underwater, global warming will send the planet into a downward spiral! Are you insane? We can't risk killing or destroying anyone or anything else, whether or not we can bring them back. And then these methods of resurrection are all too slow. Doomsday was instant!"

"You realise that you are preventing me from fixing that, correct? You realise that I can bring everyone back if you just get out of my way, correct? You realise if Anti-Doomsday happens in the next second, you will be to blame, correct?"

Haruhi paused for thought, "You plan to kill me don't you?"

"Kill is not the appropriate word for this situation." Haruhi lowered the Hand Canon before standing up just as Mio struck a chord. The amp bellowed a low and, admittedly, a rather pleasing hum of her bass guitar but was not accompanied by the destructive force Mio's power had previously demonstrated. Haruhi had taken back the abilities she had originally given her.

"Skynet," spoke Haruhi, "I will carry out your kill order. Just make it quick. Please." She disappeared from view.

Yuki stood back up, wiping off her skirt. She then took Flandre by the back of the neck, who began breaking into tiny pixels. "Forgive me, Flandre, but your destructive power is a threat to all of existence. I hope you understand." Flandre just let out a sob as her whole being vanished from the digital world. Yuki flew off the smashed and splintered remains of the Flying Dutchman, leaving the isolated and powerless Mio stranded on board.

Black-Smith saw the Destiny Ascension's wing falling down towards him. As it fell its weight was pushing against the giant King Saw, which in turn started to tilt, tilting the ceramic iceberg with it. Cracks shot across the black and white checkerboard all around Smith, water from the Atlantic Ocean below blasting through the gaps. The ceramic island would not be floating for long. But these were of no concern to Smith. His target was the person falling with them. The unconscious and bloody Remilia Scarlet.

His train of thought was interrupted by a massive number of black chains shooting up and over, gravity pulling them down towards him. Annoyed, Black-Smith summoned BEAST's other signature weapon, a long and wide broadsword known as BRSBLADE. With a single swing above him, the sword slashed at a far longer distance than its physical length, cutting through each and every single chain. This was closely accompanied by a sudden powerful water spurt from the cracks in the ceramic around Smith, pushing the chains harmlessly aside, slamming against the ground with loud smashes away from Smith.

The Black Squad were struggling to keep their footing on the collapsing island, the Nautilus behind them, sliding and screeching against the checkboard into the Atlantic. Then without warning, a gigantic fist of water, struck the Squad from above, snapping the ground under them straight off the main body, dropping them into the ocean.

"I'll take The Black Squad," the now thawed Nitori-Smith offered as he walked past Black-Smith, "The water is my territory," he stated diving into the deep blue.

Without a response, Black-Smith shot off the island towards Remilia when the glow of green from below caught his attention. He rolled in the air to one side as a hot green energy beam shot past him, vaporising the rain it passed through. Dead Master, on one of her floating skulls, raced towards him, her raged yellow eyes glowing harder, the skull's mouth charging for another cannon shot. Black-Smith was not interested in another distraction when a dark green tentacle grabbed the jaw of the skull and pulled it back downwards. Dead Master had to hold on tightly from the unexpected fall, the skull cannon charge fizzling out. More tentacles wrapped round the skull as it stopped descending, a Venus Flytrap looking head towered over Dead Master.

"It has been a long time since I last found life within me. I fear for your sad existence, still I hunger, you see." Gravemind was hovering, unnaturally so, without any wings or other flying equipment. He was also more than double the size he had been previously. Dead Master got to her feet only for Gravemind to devour her and the skull whole.

Black-Smith's eyebrow twitched. Losing someone to someone else was unpleasant but he was grateful to be rid of the lesser priority. Looking up towards the seemingly endless thundercloud, he could see Remilia was still falling at speed. Adjusting his position, he caught the helpless vampire in his arms, her crimson blood splattering over his suit. She had regenerated from the impact from Ritsu earlier but her mind still struggled to awaken her. Which suited Smith just fine.

"Your fate is mine," he gloated, piercing her torso with his hand, the black liquid spreading out from her chest. He couldn't help cracking a smile as the Scarlet powerhouse was being assimilated.

He did not expect Remilia to suddenly disappear from his grip. Taken back, Smith looked up to see Remilia fading away from existence in the arms of Sasaki. With Remilia gone for good, Sasaki lowered her arms and her gaze to Black-Smith.

"We have met before, Agent Smith," her unrelenting yellow eyes out of place on her calm face, "Higher priorities have prevented me from deciding whether to erase cheaters like you from the simulation."

"You're a liar, Director," growled Smith, enraged at losing who would have been his most powerful asset, "You can't do anything against cheaters. It's not part of your jurisdiction." Sasaki tilted her head to one side and blinked. "You're an AI Director. Why would you have anything to do with anything not related to AI? And besides…" Smith frowned, "You haven't done anything against Rulia yet have you?"

"That is true," Sasaki, "But it is within my ideals to punish those that have an unfair boost to their abilities. Why can't I discipline those I feel deserve it?"

"Because it's not part of your programming-"

"Lying is the first sign of one's sentience, dear Agent," Gravemind interrupted, floating up to their level with his stern remark.

"You can't be serious," Smith mumbled quietly, looking back into Sasaki's eyes.

"Notice, friendly fire is the Director's own judgement," reasoned Gravemind, "But see, Yggdrasil is free from Sasaki's loose morals."

"What are you going to do?" asked Emiri to Yukari, the Red Marker floating idly nearby, "Yukari is one of those in the kill order."

The Yggdrasil-controlled Yukari grit her teeth, "You do it."

"You made me erase Flandre."

"I don't know about you but I don't like seeing the end of anybody's existence."

"But you understand the meaning behind the kill order?"

"… Yes, I get it… Stop asking me pointless questions."

"Yggdrasil!" called Neo as he flew next to them, Wesker and Ellis following, "You're agreeing to the kill order?" he asked, exasperated.

"Neo, I have to. Don't make me explain a policy that I don't like."

"If you don't like it, don't-"

Then out of nowhere, the bow of Arsenal Gear struck Yukari in the face, the sides of the massive ship shoving aside Neo, Wesker, Ellis, Emiri and the Marker.

Emiri recovered first, incredibly furious at the implication of Arsenal Gear interrupting their conversation at thousands of metres above sea level. She caught sight of the far flung Yukari, reeling from the impact. She began to fly towards Yukari when a hand took hold of her upper right arm very tightly. Quickly, she turned her head to see Accelerator's yellow eyes staring into hers, accompanied with a wide and disturbing grin. Accelerator was the one to launch Arsenal Gear into the sky, with his power over vectors such as velocity and acceleration. This immense power meant he was another person stated in the kill order. But despite, his physical contact with Emiri, Accelerator was not disappearing. Something was wrong.

Accelerator laughed, "Are you trying to delete me?" Skynet was shocked, her surprise showing in Emiri's face, a reaction Accelerator loved, "You are, aren't you?" Emiri's arm bone snapped right where Accelerator was holding. While this did not hurt Emiri, it succeeded in sending Skynet into a panic.

"Why are you attacking me?" gasped Emiri, "I'm not a Carrier!"

Accelerator leaned closer, "You're in my way."

Intentionally ignoring the Director's earlier warning, Emiri spun round, her right arm twisting at a very awkward angle, to take hold of Accelerator's forehead with her left hand. "You're only human," she glared, "I can control you."

For the second time, Accelerator burst out laughing. "You don't know me too well, do you? Anything that can be reversed is my toy. It's a pity that reversing your control would just make you control yourself. But what's that? You're already being controlled!" He crackled wildly before placing his own left hand on Emiri's face. "Let me help you get Skynet out of your head…"

Emiri's eyes widened, "Help me, Sasak-" she started before everything went red.

Yukari opened her eyes to see blurs of faint light, her ears were humming, her nose was blocked and she could taste a very strong flavour of iron in her mouth. As she wiped her face with her now red sleeve, she realised she was making her own decisions and actions. Yggdrasil had left her, she was now not under control. A glimmer of hope entered her mind. And then she saw the indescribable happen to Emiri's head.

Accelerator let go of Emiri's lifeless body and turned his head to Yukari. Yukari immediately summoned a gap in between them to prevent Accelerator from launching straight to her. But then yellow eyes suddenly appeared in front of her own as Accelerator took her by the neck. On his back was Shirai Kuroko, best friend of Misaka Mikoto and a Level 4 teleporter, her glowing yellow gaze matching Accelerator's. Accelerator, out of character, roared in Yukari's face before her back struck metal.

Yukari hit the still falling wing of The Destiny Ascension from above faster than the speed of light, both striking the ceramic island with uncalled for force. The checkboard pieces of the island, the two halves of the shattered wing and the unconscious and barely alive Yukari began to sink, bringing down other debris under the waves. The two sections of the HMS Thunder Child, one warped into a sphere, fifty miles of heavy chains, most of which were black but some were white, the giant King Saw, Gravemind's train trolley, several broken clones of Ruyi Jingu Bang, the tiny pieces of Sasaki's Super Driver along with masses of debris from Yggdrasil's fleet unceremoniously descended into the depths, with the just sunk Nautilus, to join the forgotten mangled remains of Megatron and the battered and burnt body of Atlas many metres below. Not too far away stood the broken tooth of Unicron, standing above the battle in the sky but embedded into the planet's surface.

But Yukari would not be granted even this final journey as Nagato Yuki took her hand to cross another item off the list.