Chapter 56.2 - Thunderous Iron

Thunderous Iron
"I feel sick," groaned Ellis, breaking the silence on the HMS Thunder Child. Ellis was at the bridge, or at least what remained of the bridge. Rulia's crash into Area 51 had crushed the front half of the ship's skeleton, meaning the front half was missing all the internal innards, including physical controls and floors. Gravemind was clutching The Red Marker by the active hyperdrive, along with The Hunter and Nemesis, which was pushing the vessel quickly northwards through the Atlantic Ocean. The inside of the ship stunk of rotting flesh, the only major ventilation being the broken windows of the bridge but they were too high to comfort Ellis' suffering nose.

"Shouldn't we come up with a plan?" suggested Neo, by the large White Noise and Portal Generators in the centre of the bottom floor, "We can't just charge into the Arctic."

"The plan is to win," answered Smith, "We don't know what the Arctic's like. There is no point planning."

"Now that I think 'bout it, L4D's pretty linear..." groaned Ellis.

"We need to be vigilant," insisted Gravemind, "It will be more likely Yggdrasil will come to us first."

"I don't understand why you want to go to the Arctic," noted Neo.

"We do not want to stay in Area 51 any longer," answered Gravemind with noticeable exhaustion, "The Arctic will present us with new opportunities."

"To infect the world?" Neo couldn't help looking at Smith who seemed to be avoiding his gaze.

"What benefit would we gain from infecting the world?" retorted Gravemind, "If we even try, we would be shot down. It is not within our best interests."

Smith let out a disappointed sigh, "All this over a stupid little girl..."

"She is The Lady of the Empty Seat. The leader of our cause but destined never to be there to lead us."

"I have no leader."

"You have no hope against Yggdrasil by yourself. Indeed, Yggdrasil does not even consider us a threat, otherwise we would already be engaged in battle. Besides, how are you going to protect your future interests if you cannot protect a 'stupid little girl'?"

Smith did not reply, "... There's a whirlpool ahead of us."

Wesker jumped up to the bridge windows, holding onto the frame and looked out. While Smith wasn't lying, the whirlpool was far larger than initially imagined. It was about the size of a city, sucking water down fast. But Wesker noticed something standing behind the whirlpool. "We've got a little more than a whirlpool. We've got Atlas too."

"Shouldn't we go round?" asked Neo.

"We can get over the whirlpool in a few seconds," rejected Smith, walking to the front of the ship. He put a hand on Ellis' shoulder, "Put your head down or you'll drag us down with you." He flew to the ceiling of the bridge and began lifting the front of the ship out of the water.

"Oh yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence," mumbled Ellis, looking around for something to hold onto.

"It's too risky Smith," argued Neo, "Atlas will swat us out of the sky."

"Mister Anderson!" shouted Smith, "If Skynet truly wants our help, she will help us."

Unconvinced but realising there was little choice, Neo flew to the ceiling of the back half of the ship and the Thunder Child rose out the water, shooting over the wide whirlpool. Atlas rose a hand up towards them when a pink particle cannon beam hit his arm, forcing his hand down with a roar. Noticeably, the beam had come at an angle rather than straight above.

"We safe yet?!" called Ellis from the bottom floor over the loud noise, desperately hanging onto a bent girder.

"It's not over yet!" shouted back Wesker.

Marisa, her green left eye glowing brightly, hovered above Atlas, watching the incoming Thunder Child. "Déjà vu," she murmured, pointing her Hakkero at the ship. "Master Spark!" A thick green tinted beam shot from her Hakkero almost bigger than the ship itself.

With a energising whirl, the Portal Generator on the Thunder Child activated, opening a blue rimmed portal through which the Master Spark entered and left through an orange rimmed portal upwards towards another target. Yakumo Yukari smiled to see the Master Spark come from below, opening one of her own gaps below her. She summoned the exit gap right by the side of the Thunder Child. The Master Spark shot through the side of the ship, burning two huge holes through the metal hull, leaving glowing green residue. It appeared to be corrosive, preventing the metal from repairing itself. Outside the right hole, Yukari's gap was still outside, travelling along with the vessel.

"I think you're right, Wes!" noted Ellis.

Next to Yukari were two others, Nana Gray, who was incapable of self-flight, was sat on Mima's shoulder. She jumped off Mima with her hand on her longsword and fell through the gap below, launching her out the other gap towards the hole in the Thunder Child.

Smith gritted his teeth, the White Noise Generator roaring to life, coating the ship in white light. But the Noise shattered instantly as a sharp metal circle struck the opposite side of the Thunder Child, the circle returning back to its owner, Moriya Suwako, who immediately dived towards the water below as the midday sky darkened.

Putting all her power into the swing, Gray slashed upwards at the Thunder Child, cutting the ship cleanly in two, slicing through the Portal Generator. The front half quickly began to fall as it was not connected to the hyperdrive. Just as it began to rain.

Smith's half of the ship leaned back as the heavy but intact White Noise Generator weighed down the back, Wesker and Ellis holding on as best they could. As Smith tried to adjust his position to straight the hull, something hit the front of the ship with great force, knocking the nose upwards. In turn, both Wesker and Ellis lost their grip, Wesker falling straight out the gaping hole below. Ellis hit the end of White Noise Generator but managed to establish a handhold, "Wes-!" he shouted, looking down. He immediately turned back up and gulped in fear, having just seen the whirlpool for himself. The massive black centre of the whirlpool was unnerving, as though it was a black hole sucking up all its surroundings.

Neo's half of the ship, gathered a slight boost of speed from the loss of weight, passing over Smith's half. But this did not last long as something slammed into the ship from above, indenting the ceiling with a circle and causing sharp pain through Neo's elbow. The Thunder Child lost height drastically, Atlas' face clearly visible out the hull.

"We're on a collision course with Atlas' face if we don't move," declared Gravemind, in a rather calm tone. Neo, struggling to hold the ship with a sudden phenomenal weight gain let alone raise it, tilted to the right, the hyperdrive helping with the tight turn. But when they turned the half-circle, they could see the attacker ahead. Meiling was charging towards them, surrounded by copies of Jingu Bang. Nemesis, stood behind the slashed Portal Generator, ripped a handful of boneless and bloodless torso off The Hunter, who did not protest, but instead cut the head off the rocket propelled grenade Nemesis was holding behind his back with its blades. Neo curiously watched Nemesis push the propulsion part of the grenade up the rocket launcher barrel on his back, followed by the rotting flesh. Noting Nemesis was trying to hide his actions from Meiling, Neo gathered that he wanted the Thunder Child to stay on course.

As he fell, Wesker regained his bearings, looking around. Neo's half of the ship was descending faster than Wesker was, with the massive Bang attached to the roof of the hull.

"Swim," said a female voice above him. Wesker looked up in surprise just as Marisa kicked sharply downwards, instantly breaking his spine and launching him faster towards the whirlpool below.

Smith looked up through the windows of the bridge to see Superman flying above them. Superman smashed down onto the Thunder Child's nose, shaking off Ellis' grip. As Ellis fell out the ship, Smith let go and attempted to dive after him. However, the ship was suddenly turned horizontal and with Superman's incredible strength the open hull was creased shut, preventing Smith's escape.

"Aww, not good," mouthed Ellis, holding onto his cap and drawing his shotgun. Against his wishes, he looked down at the whirlpool, catching sight of a shirtless man hovering below him.

Enel, the self-proclaimed God of Thunder, hit one of the drums on his back with the gold staff he was holding, "San Senman Boruto Raichō Hino [30,000,000 Volt Thunderbird]," he muttered, yellow electricity forming into a bird but before it could fly upwards, it suddenly lost its shape and zapped towards something in the dark horizon. Ellis, convinced the man was an enemy and forgetting that Yggdrasil was a carrier, aimed the gun downward and pulled the trigger just as he passed, blowing off Enel's head with a clap of thunder. Made of electricity, Enel was unharmed, his head regenerating. But as an eye reformed, he saw Kagamine Len in front of him with his fist in Enel's head.

Len grinned, "Lightningrod," absorbing the living electricity into himself.

Nemesis waited a moment before raising his rocket launcher at Meiling. Understanding the signal, Neo forced the hyperdrive to full power, shooting towards her. Following up, Gravemind shot out his tentacles, briefly knocking aside all the Bangs in front of Meiling. Nemesis pulled the trigger, igniting the propulsion. The tampered fuel of the half grenade was a terrible force but that wasn't the point. With the little fuel, decayed flesh ungracefully splattered out the weapon, which Meiling was unable to dodge or block, covering her and her eyes with the disgusting substance. Unable to see, she, as well as the remaining Bangs, tumbled uselessly into the Thunder Child.

"Yggdrasil may be an AI," declared Gravemind, "But he is blind. He can only see through the eyes of others." He was quickly losing energy, his head on the floor, unable to restrain the still conscious Meiling. The sudden increase of weight due to the Bangs forced the ship to descend even quicker. However, Neo caught sight of the falling Ellis outside and boosted the hyperdrive to catch him. While Ellis hit the metal floor hard, if the Thunder Child had been ascending the injury would have been a lot worse.

Wesker hit the water with a crash, breaking more bones in his body, and began to circle round the whirlpool due to the current. With stifled underwater groans, Wesker waited for his body to regenerate but caught sight of two incoming swimmers, Suwako and Nitori. During his time with The Anti-Humour Society, Nitori was known for her mastery over machine and water, and was probably the cause of the whirlpool. Wesker was not adapted to underwater combat but he had no other choice. He took off his glasses, revealing his glowing red eyes when he heard a low ringing, similar to a whale's call.

Nemesis paced rather nimbly to Meiling and was about to take hold of her when one of Yukari's gaps opened up in the ship, bringing Mima with Gray sat backwards on her left shoulder. The Red Marker immediately began to glow, its hallucinations affecting Gray's vision but not Mima's. Despite being physically blinded, Meiling immediately recovered, kicking Nemesis in the face, who stumbled back. With a hand firmly holding onto the White Noise Generator, Nemesis brought the rocket launcher noisily to his shoulder, pointing it at Mima, who heard, immediately pointing a finger at Nemesis. As a sideeffect, Gray, who drew back her sword for a horizontal slash, was now facing Gravemind, who shuffled back as far as he could, "We need Mima blinded!"

"Twilight Spark!" shouted Mima, a yellow beam shooting from a finger. Gray unleashed her sword slash at the same time. Just as something else landed on top of the Thunder Child, tipping the ship like a seesaw using Neo as a pivot, dropping the cut hull down but the hyperdrive up. Mima's Twilight Spark missed the lowered Nemesis, shooting through the ceiling of the ship. Gray's slash missed the raised Gravemind, cutting through the lower belly of the vessel. Nemesis and The Hunter had been ready for the sudden vertical change, securely holding onto the generator. Gravemind was less prepared but had already been tightly holding onto the hyperdrive, However, The Red Marker slipped out his grip, falling out the hull. Ellis had been even less organised and tumbled out after the Marker, followed by several inactive Bangs.

The unexpected change in orientation of the Thunder Child took Mima by surprise. She quickly retreated back through Yukari's gap with Gray and Meiling, the initial objective to extract Meiling successful, but the gap could not close quickly enough before Neo to fly through after them.

Without Neo, the Thunder Child went into a freefall. Calmly, The Hunter looked down at the whirlpool before jumping down out the ship, just as Silver Surfer passed at high speed, diving towards the falling Ellis. Megatron, who had been the one who had landed on the ship a moment earlier, caught The Hunter and with all his might threw the Necromorph down towards Silver Surfer, quickly closing the distance.

Kimidori Emiri looked up to see various objects falling towards her, The Red Marker, Ellis, several Bangs, Silver Surfer, Nemesis and the back half of the Thunder Child, in that order. She was hovering a considerable distance above Wesker's position, invisible to the naked eye. With Enel's mind-reading Mantra ability negated and with Yuki and Rulia cancelling Haruhi's omniscience, Emiri was effectively invisible to Yggdrasil. While she took note of everything above her, she was only concerned with The Red Marker and Silver Surfer's board. Everything else would take care of itself.

Wesker was suddenly hit from below, launched out of the water into the air. He was followed by a blue orca-like animal jumping out of the water below him. The whirlpool unexpectedly collapsed in on itself and flattened out before immediately freezing. Wesker hit the ice with a rather sickening thud in front of the large Kyogre, the Sea Basin Pokémon, the cause of the uncomfortable rain. Ahead of him, Nitori landed on the ice before slipping, having avoided Kyogre's Sheer Cold attack. Suwako had not been so fortunate. Without warning, a huge pillar from the sky hit the sea at an amazing speed, just missing the iceberg, producing a tsunami like wave. But the wave almost instantly froze, due to the subzero temperature of the space-reaching pillar, freezing the column in place. Breathing heavily, though he would not admit it, Wesker was not in the mood to fight. He was in a terrible physical condition and it would take time to self-repair. "It would have been nice to be a Carrier," he thought to himself, "Then Yggdrasil wouldn't attack me... Or a little more power. That wouldn't hurt."

"It's ironic you should say that," said a female voice inside his head.

"Wha-?!" Wesker cried out in agony as his bones clicked back together in his body.

"Not good. Not good," thought Ellis as he plummeted downwards, sight fixed on Silver Surfer above him, who was rapidly gaining on him. Ellis drew his Magnum and pointed it at the Surfer, "Aww, crap. He's a Carrier, isn't he? The Director's going to be out for my head." Ellis shut his eyes for a brief moment of concentration to think about the risks but his thoughts were interrupted.

"Open your eyes!" called a female voice inside his head.

Ellis' eyes flew open, a blue flame over his left eye burning to life.