Humans Vs Monsters
Getting the Rebellion to go fight the “distraction force” was a simple matter, as my previous meeting with them evidenced. Getting each individual member of the Celestial Ten to go exactly where they had to be, however, proved to be a headache and a half the first few times I tried to direct them. If I just walked up to them and told each one where to go… well, it would decisively spell the end of my scheming - for reasons not yet detailed - and therefore it would force me to undo such an action in the first place. So, because of this, I had to get creative. Disguising myself as a simple aspiring engineer was no issue at all, my critically plain looks ensuring I wouldn’t be easily recognised outside of my regular/recognisable outfit, and getting employed by the airliner company was just as easy, seeing as I was comically overqualified for the job. I’m the leading expert in every single field imaginable, after all. I pondered lifelessly, grabbing a wrench as I walked into the factory that I was supposedly supervising as part of my new job. Yessir, there ain’t a single thing I don’t have a PhD in~ I may not have the diplomas to prove it right now, but it’s the damn truth! I walked past some of the workers, giving them a quick formal greeting, until I finally reached the machine I was looking for. I stared at it intensely for a few moments in concentration, squatting down and staring at one of the bolts keeping the thing together. Everyone thinks I’m just inspecting it, like I’m supposed to. I used the wrench to untwist the bolt by a fraction of a turn, nodded to myself, and then stood back up while stuffing the wrench in my pocket. Done. Now all I need is to format some paperwork and tamper with the company’s algorithm so that any complaints about the faulty machine fail to get through… And then I can quit before the day’s over. Come three years time, that small sabotage would slowly accumulate, resulting in a singular faulty spring.
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“TODAY MARKS THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY MARKING THE END OF THE THIRD GREAT WAR AND THE BIRTH OF OUR GLORIOUS WORLD STATE!!!” the low and commanding voice of the United States’ Councilor blared across the entire world from every last loudspeaker the government could get their hands on, his tone reminiscent of the grandiose speeches by generals in war movies, “THIS DATE IS A TESTAMENT TO HUMANITY!!! IT IS PROOF THAT A SPECIES THAT HAD NEVER KNOWN LASTING PEACE HAS FINALLY STEPPED BEYOND ITS WEAKNESS!!” The ever recognisable voice of the Council of Five’s eldest quieted for a few moments after that, a deep and shaky breath escaping through as if by accident before he resumed in a much calmer tone of voice, “Normally, today would be a day of great celebration!! Of rejoicement and hope!! Instead, it seems like mankind escapes the nonsense that was violence upon fellow man… only to have war be thrust upon him from the outside… And yet I refuse to despair!! AND YET I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT!!! This time, it is different. Humanity is UNITED instead of divided!! Together, we will face this siege, and we will come out more than victorious - we will be TRIUMPHANT!!!” he thundered, cheering erupting all around the Norwegian military base. I looked up at the speaker while I walked with Love Love through the installation and rolled my eyes, “Can you be any more corny?? Bleh,” I called out jokingly. Jessica shrugged and smiled at that, “I personally thought it was cool! Maybe I’m just a sucker for cliche rousing speeches, though?~”
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“Really? YOU’RE coming with us?!” Warpbreaker asked me in sincere surprise, his eyebrow raising as he looked me up and down in suspicion, “You?? THE Kronos?! Are you gonna be watching us with binoculars or what??” his gaze then lightened up and he slapped his knees, grinning, “I KNEW you’d be the type to be into gladiatorial matches!!! Haha!! I gotta get Horde to pay up on our bet~” he exclaimed, as if he was a detective who had finally figured out the culprit to a murder. I rolled my eyes at him, yawning as I grabbed a parachute and put it on like a backpack, “You’re free to refuse to believe me as much as you want, Eiken, but all I’ll say is that I’m not bringing any ‘binoculars’ with me. I’m still a Celestial, you know? It’s also my duty to-” I was interrupted mid-sentence by a chuckle coming from Stalwart, the old man walking up behind me, grey eyes glimmering in amusement, “Duty?? Oh, shush! What nonsense!!” he called me out with a hearty grin, making me roll my eyes,“If this was about some sense of responsibility, you wouldn’t have brought the girl, after all!” he pointed out, nodding at my sidekick, who was at that moment too engrossed in a conversation with Maquineer and Immortalis to notice. I harrumphed in defeat and rested my head on the headrest of my seat, “Cut me some slack, gramps, not everything has to have ulterior motives… Plus, she can more than handle herself. She’s quite capable, y’know.”
Stalwart shrugged and took a seat next to me, “Maybe she is. Either way, I doubt you’d cultivate so much with her just to have her die today… If I was a betting man, I’d put all of my money on her coming out of this intact.” Eiken tilted his head, his gaze shifting between me and Stalwart, leaning forward while placing one leg on top of the other, “Oh! Speaking of which!!” he started, his eyes flicking over to where Jessica was being accosted by the two youngest Celestials, “Can I just say I’m a big fan of your little pet project, Kronos?? She’s damn impressive considering how little time she’s been around,” he turned to look at me again, smirking smugly, “I’m excited to see just how strong she’ll get. Say, you sure you aren’t trying to replace us, Kev Kev?~ You’re breakin’ my heart,” he bemoaned playfully, resting his head on some unseen pillow. I groaned in exaggerated annoyance and stared up at the ceiling, “Really?? Kev Kev of all things?! That was fucking AWFUL. That was BAD, even by your standards!!” I lamented, yet unable to stop the edges of my lips from curling upwards slightly, “Don’t call me that ever again, holy hell.” Warpbreaker chuckled at that and Stalwart cracked a small smile too, for a moment reminiscing about the olden days. Old man, eh? Nine thought to himself amusedly, pondering on what I had called him earlier. Hypocrite. I can tell from the way you talk; you’re already older than me! Hah!! The thought didn’t seem to bother him, instead taking solace in the idea.
Meanwhile, Love Love was far too engrossed in her own conversation to eavesdrop on mine. “So it really was you!!!” Alice exclaimed, grinning widely from ear to ear, her robotic eyes peering into Jessica’s face like a child who just spotted a cool looking bug. My sidekick began to half-smile nervously, shifting in her seat, “A-Ahh… Well, yeah, it was me, but it wasn’t like THAT…” she muttered, giving me a panicked side-eye only to realise I was still bickering with Number Nine and Number Six. “You did all that under Kronos’ orders?” Immortalis asked, interested yet trying to act nonchalant, picking at his nails while giving her a mere passing glance. “Oh!! Umm-” Jessica sighed, “Not really… Well, I did go there on his orders, but nothing else. He didn’t tell me to enhance Cassandra’s water bullets or get involved or anything else…” Maquineer tilted her head, brow furrowing with confusion and curiosity, “Hmm, really?? I thought for sure he told you to help her out!! So then why’d you go and do it anyway?? Are you sympathetic to the rebel cause, perhaps??” she asked excitedly. Jessica blinked after that final question, her face paling and a drop of sweat running down her face while a million different possible life-threatening answers to that inquiry rushed through her mind, before she eventually settled down after deciding that she knew Alice well enough to know that she wasn’t being interrogated like that. Love Love let out a breath and shook her head while putting her hands in front of her, “No, nothing like that!! I just- Well, you were about to blow up the whole beach, you know!!!” Number Five pouted and tilted her head to the other side as if to capture a different angle of my pet’s face, “And?? I don’t see the issue-” John then suddenly interrupted his fellow Celestial by throwing a nail clipping into Alice’s face, stunning her for a moment before it suddenly disappeared thanks to Everliving activating, “She thought you were about to kill her, dumbass,” Immortalis explained while cracking an amused smile, “The poor girl acted on self-preservation. Hell, even WITH her intervention you nearly ended up putting her into a coffin!”
Maquineer blushed a deep red in shame and hung her head, closing her eyes and rubbing her temple between her index and thumb in much the same way a student does after suddenly having an epiphany about a test they submitted five minutes ago. “Ah, right, yes, of course!” she meekly grumbled, “T-That makes sense, yes. Of course! Sorry…” Love Love blinked a couple of times, a delighted snicker suddenly escaping from her due to the silliness of the current conversation, “No no, don’t worry about it!! It’s fine!! We both came out of that situation alright and that’s what matters!” she reassured the hero, giving her a tentative pat on the shoulder. Hm. Immortalis thought to himself, his eyes narrowing in on Jessica. She’s a lot more sociable than her sponsor, that’s for sure… But I still don’t think it would be a good idea to try and interrogate her too much. Kevin took her under his wing for a reason, he wouldn’t pick someone with loose lips. “Well, if you say so… Anyway!!” Maquineer piped up excitedly, changing subject on a dime the instant she realised she wasn’t in trouble, “Has Kronos told you about his super duper secret plan?? Have you met the other Rebellion members?? Do you know if one of us is going to die today?! I have so many questions I want to ask you!!”
There was a moment of deafeningly awkward silence after that, interrupted only by the background noise of the other conversations taking place around the plane. Immortalis slowly and deliberately turned his head at Maquineer in sheer incredulity, completely forgetting to keep up the uninterested act, his eyes wide and pupils blown, his body language making it obvious he was in utter disbelief. Jessica, meanwhile, merely blinked a couple of times and furrowed her brow, pondering if she had somehow heard wrong, “Uhh-” Did she really just come out and ask me like that?! The rebellion question was one thing, but this- What the hell am I supposed to say??? Am I going to get killed if I refuse to answer?! “I-I mean, look, Alice- I- Umm-” my sidekick stuttered out nervously. John stepped in, interrupting Love Love compassionately, “Stop asking her so many questions, Five…” he muttered apathetically, side-eyeing Jessica and giving her a small reassuring nod, “You’re overwhelming the poor girl. Take things slow, remember?” The cyborg blushed bright red once more and hung her head a second time, kicking her legs ashamedly, “Right. Sorry again… I’m still learning, y’know…” My sidekick let out a quiet sigh of relief, resting her head on the wall of the plane and turning to look at Seven gratefully, to which he merely shrugged and went back to picking his nails. Weird… She thought while her gaze lingered on the young hero. Kevin told me that John was an insufferable brat, but it doesn’t seem to be that way at all. Maybe he’s hiding his real intentions and just pretending to be nice? She then looked away from him and towards Alice, who had regained her bubbly attitude nearly immediately and was staring at something in the ceiling intently. And she’s not nearly as shy as what Kevin told me she’d be. Very awkward, though, that much was spot on…
“Seraph,” Horde greeted the hero ranked above him with a smile, sitting down next to her on the far back of the plane. Angellica looked at the man she didn’t recognise that had just sat down next to her apprehensively and gave a tentative smile back. Damnit, I wanted to sit alone… She thought to herself in annoyance. “Horde, I presume?” she answered the greeting, tilting her head, “What’re you doing back here? Shouldn’t you be with Empress, discussing the plan?” The hero blinked and looked towards the front of the aircraft to where the remaining Celestials were, and then returned his gaze to Seraph without any seeming change in expression, “The plan was finalized by the time it got relayed to you and the rest of the ten. All that they’re discussing now is unimportant details,” his eyes then acquired a bit of a playful look, albeit still looking a bit too robotic and alien for Angellica’s taste, “What, do you want to get rid of me that bad? You’re hurting my feelings.” The heroine acquired a mortified look on her face, completely unused to being directly confronted over subtle social cues, “Ah-?! No, not at all!! It’s just- you’re such a vital part of everything - I just thought you’d be quite busy! That’s all.” Why are so many of the Celestials so fuckin’ WEIRD?! There’s only like, 3 normal people here!! Seraph whiningly lamented to herself while trying to defuse what she internally perceived as a total social disaster. It just makes things so much harder!! I know how to deal with normal humans, not with whatever the hell these guys are!!
Horde waved away her concerns and shook his head, “I was joking. I can tell you’re nervous, so I was trying to get your mind off of things. Like you said, I may be vital to this operation… but so is everyone else here.” His eyes wandered off to where the rest of the Celestials were gathering in small groups and engaging in small talk, a pensive look settling over his face, “But it's also true that you have more stakes in this than anyone else here. Failure doesn’t necessarily mean death except for in the worst case scenario for the rest of us - not counting John - but for you? Failure, even without death, would still ruin your life permanently.” Angellica grit her teeth, her irises glowing golden for a split second before quickly dimming, slumping over in frustration, “I know,” she muttered lifelessly, “I’m not a fool, I KNOW,” she then suddenly slammed her fist into the floor in frustration, “I KNOW DAMNIT!! I have trained and I have prepared as best as I could, but still!! I didn’t ask for this!!”
Horde nodded and smiled politely, “Your frustration is justified,” he reassured her earnestly with a pat on the back, “I’m actually surprised you haven’t had a breakdown, in fact. Your mental fortitude is impressive.” Seraph blinked and looked up at him, trying to analyse his expression yet once more finding it frustratingly impossible due to his nature, “Thank you,” she dispassionately mumbled, “I’ll take the compliment.” Horde stood back up and gave her a second pat on the back before putting his hands in his pockets and turning away, “If it’s worth anything, I’ll be watching your back.” Horde, huh? Angellica mused to herself while watching him walk away. He’s very empathetic. At least, it seems like it. Seraph sighed and stared down at the dent in the floor where she had punched, trailing her index finger over it, ignoring the aching coming from her knuckles. I wonder who’s better off between us? The monster who feels empathy… or the human who doesn’t? She then thought back to the dozens of troop transport aircraft flying in formation along with the one the Celestials were in, each of them holding a number of Horde’s bodies. “I’ll be watching your back”... Did you mean it literally, perhaps?
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A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“How many, exactly?” Ziz asked, her bird-like pupils focused on the tiny specks only now beginning to appear over the horizon. The monster beside her crackled its neck, its tubular telescope-esque eyes vibrating wildly for a few moments, “In my range of vision I can see about ten thousand aircraft. Most of them are fighters, attack helicopters, or other offensive aircraft - with only a small group of about a hundred transport planes tightly guarded in the middle.” Ziz nodded, flapping her four wings and suddenly ascending into the air, a scowl on her face, “Go, spread the message to the other monsters and Apostles that the time has come. Looks like I’ll have to do all the heavy lifting like always…” she grumbled in exaggerated frustration, the clouds above beginning to rapidly darken and gather, spinning around above the Apostle as she conjured up a storm. The monster nodded and quickly descended from the rocky tip of Behemoth’s body, its body already beginning to feel chilly from the winds being cast up above.
Ziz took a deep and shaky breath as soon as the messenger monster was out of sight, her beaked mouth twisting into a fearfully nervous smile. “Haha…” she half-chuckled, half-cried, looking towards the rapidly approaching invasion force of humanity, “Why…? It’s so unfair!! It’s totally unfair!!!” she whined out brokenly as if on the verge of tears… only for her eyes to suddenly narrow as her smile vanished, “No. I can’t get emotional now. I can’t afford to.” She slowly opened her mouth again, but this time plumes of chilly vapor began to escape from her beak instead of words, the howling winds around her beginning to pick up in power and potency, lightning crackling up above, the shadows cast by the storm clouds slowly encasing the entire island in a permeating shadow.
“Apostle Ziz has made her move!!!” the parrot-like monster cawed out to the gathering of winged creatures in one of the many caves on Behemoth’s surface, “Which means only one thing!!” the monster continued reverently while walking back and forth, its gaze refusing to rest for longer than a millisecond on any individual monster. Don’t look at them. The parrot monster thought to himself, trying his best to ignore how his wings were trembling like leaves in the wind. Don’t think about it. “You all knew exactly what you were signing up for when you joined this unit, and so, I believe I don’t need to waste much time in this speech. So all I’ll say is this!! Let’s go make the Savior proud!!!!” The crowd erupted into cheers, the various amalgams and monsters applauding, despite the look in their faces displaying nothing but raw fear. “Now…” their captain finalized with a determined look in his eyes as he stared out into the quickly darkening sky outside and spread his wings, “CHARGE!!!!”
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“MULTIPLE ENEMY FLIERS ARE QUICKLY APPROACHING!!!” the robotic voice blared over the intercoms of every single aircraft in the assault coalition. Immediately, every single Celestial went silent, their conversations or even sentences being cut off prematurely, their gazes wandering towards the windows of the carrier plane. This was possibly the tensest part of it all for most of them; after all, they were all too used to putting their lives on the line… but they were not confident in the slightest in having their lives be in the hands of others. “We’ve got the very best military aircraft, pilots, and aviation crews the World State has to offer!!” Empress’ voice suddenly rang out as she stood near the rear end of the plane, her arms crossed as she stared off towards where the rest of the heroes present were gathered, “We owe it to every single person who will die in the coming aerial battle to not interfere, to save up our strengths for when we arrive at the island!!! So don’t ANY of you dare give me that look of worry!!!” she ordered with a swish of her arm, making her clothes flutter behind her.
Jessica stared in awe for a few moments, her eyebrows raising while her previously sour expression alleviated slightly, her head turning towards me with curiosity. I smiled down at her, petting the top of her head patronisingly, yet saying nothing. The rest of the Celestials began to stir, each member grabbing a parachute except for Immortalis, sitting down on their designated chairs without a peep. Gosh, I really AM a sucker for rousing speeches… Love Love thought with an internal sigh, her fingers twiddling with worry, turning to look at me once more only to notice I was no longer looking at her, my eyes drawn towards Dreamstress. Aaaaagh, but how am I supposed to not worry?! This is so scary!!! I should’ve eaten more donuts when I had the chance!! I don’t wanna dieeeeee!! She slumped, pressing her forehead on my shoulder, making me turn to look at her in confusion. Huh? Is she sleepy?? In THIS situation??
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“Squadrons A through J, engage immediately!! Thin the enemy as much as possible, even if it means getting them to chase you! Anything to keep them away from the main group!” the pilots heard blaring through their intercoms, the majority of the fighter jets making up the assault force separating from the rest of the forces and quickly accelerating towards the rapidly approaching cloud of winged monsters. “Why are they so redundant in their orders?” a pilot asked jokingly through the local radio of his squadron as they flew towards the enemy, “Do they think we’ll forget what they have been drilling into our heads for the past week??” The captain of squadron A scoffed at the words of his subordinate, his eyes narrowed in on the impressive variety of creatures making up the monster’s defensive airforce as they got nearer and nearer. There must be at least two hundred of them. Shit, if this is their defence force… Just how many must there be on the front lines?! “This is no time for jokes!!” he growled into the radio, “Focus, men!! These are monsters; each and every single one poses a unique thre-!!!” he never got to finish that sentence, a dragonfly-like monster having suddenly slam-landed on the nose of his jet faster than he could react, its head tilting to the side while eyeing the pilot inside.
The captain’s eyes widened, his hand flying into his coat as he pulled out a gun, only for the monster to slash the glass of the cockpit open with a strike from one of its legs, the bullets digging into the monster’s skin yet clearly not causing significant damage. The wind roared all around the captain as he continued to frantically shoot, the dragonfly creature approaching slowly and opening its toothy maw as if savoring the man’s fear while the aircraft quickly began to lose altitude. “CAPTAIN!!! DON’T MOVE!!!” one of his subordinates yelled over the radio, a fighter jet suddenly appearing from the side, its machineguns whirling to life and pelting the creature’s side, causing it to yowl in pain and turn around with a hiss, giving the captain just enough time to flip a lever and be ejected out of his already irreparably damaged vehicle.
It had happened fast. Too fast. Humanity’s advance air force had been caught completely and utterly off-guard; what had been planned as a clean and meticulous strategy falling apart into near-anarchy in the span of a few mere seconds. The air itself became a deadly battleground before one could even blink; monsters and human vehicles engaging in dogfights, head-on clashes, and overall participating in what could only be described as sheer brutal carnage wherever the eye could see. Had this been a story about human incompetence, the attack on Iceland would have failed then and there - forcing a complete human rout. However, the human pilots were thankfully more than sufficiently level-headed to come back from such a disastrous first clash - each and every one of them having had a week long training regiment that had drilled into their heads that fighting monsters would be extremely different from any training they had previously received. After all, as their instructors - various pro heroes - had explained; monsters that would fight like conventional military aircraft would be few and far between. Humanity expected to both outnumber the monsters by a wide margin and that most of the creatures would engage in melee, which is why they had trained to do fly-bys on monsters clinging to allies - like what had happened to the captain - among other similar strategies.
However, there was one other variable that hadn’t yet been considered, one that could have easily completely changed the human strategy… Why am I not dead yet? The captain wondered calmly as he descended through the air with a parachute, the fact that he had already accepted death making him feel a lot more level headed than he normally should be. I am a free meal right now. Any monster could just fly down and snatch me straight out of the air in this stupid parachute. We only packed these in in the first place to give the soldiers a fleeting hope of survival, not because we expected them to do anything. And yet, that hadn’t happened yet. In fact, as he slowly watched the very first monster to be felled fall from the sky, he also spotted a number of other parachuted ejectees slowly descending through the air relatively unharmed. What is this nonsense??
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“No good. None of what they are using is linked to satellites,” Mecha grumbled in frustration, closing a fist made of wires and kitchen utensils, “And they’re too far away for me to use the other method.” Qilin nodded along, sighing in discontent while also staring off into the speck-dotted sky in the horizon, “That was to be expected, considering who our enemy is.” The rock they were standing on suddenly began to rumble, one of Behemoth’s eyes opening right in front of them on the floor, the pupil by itself already being bigger than both of the other Apostles’ bodies combined, although neither of the two monsters seemed surprised by this. “I have received confirmation from Ziz that the humans have in fact not brought any bombardment or air-to-ground missile equipment. All of their combat aircraft are geared to engage the aerial monsters only,” the mountain rumbled, relaying the information to the two apostles.
Mecha tilted his head at that, looking down at his robotic hand in apprehensive curiosity, “Surprising. Explosives wouldn’t be very effective, but detonating them mid-air before they reach us would still cost me valuable energy. There is no reason not to use them.” Qilin’s eyes narrowed in consideration as he observed the dotting explosions and flashing lights erupting across the cloud of carnage in the distance, “If I had to guess, they don’t want to harm Iceland itself. They want to keep the material and environmental damage to a minimum… They are being cocky, in other words.” Mecha considered the idea, a chuckle escaping out of him in the form of metal scraping against metal, “Haha! So, they think they can crush us so decisively that they can afford to keep their pristine image intact?” he voiced out, jumping down from the boulder, causing the rocky ground underneath to crack, “Now I really want to wipe those smug smirks right off their faces.”
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“NOW ENTERING A HIGH TURBULENCE AREA, PLEASE REMAIN SEATED,” the mechanical voice rang out through the transport holding the Celestials, the plane beginning to shake right on cue, loud explosions and the sounds of rattling gunfire echoing outside. “Yeah no shit,” John grumbled out, rubbing the top of his head after the turbulence made him slam his skull against the wall, “Its raining like crazy outside, its a damn fuckin’ hurricane!! What the hell is this timing?! Did the monsters specifically choose this time because they knew there’d be a typhoon?? Those slimy bastards.” His words were initially met with silence, the rest of the heroes too concentrated or deep in thought to pay his whining any mind, except for Maquineer whose brow furrowed as she turned to look at the man inquisitively. However, it was only after a moment of quiet deliberation that Alice finally gathered the courage to speak up, “N-No? Not really, at least. Hurricanes don’t happen in Iceland, John… It’s too cold and the conditions aren’t-”
“Alice,” she was suddenly interrupted by Breadman who was looking out the same window as Immortalis, the yellow glow of his eyes lighting up the glass subtly, “There is literally a hurricane outside. I can see the eye of the storm from here.” Maquineer blinked at that, her head slowly tilting while her mouth hung ajar, “Uhh… That… That shouldn’t be possible…” she murmured quietly in confusion. Empress had figured it out earlier but had kept silent in order to keep the already tenuous peace and quiet, only to then rub her temple and let out a sigh once it was clear that everyone else would understand things soon enough. “Alice is right,” she grumbled, her pupils flicking towards me and giving me a short yet brutal glare before looking back towards the rest of the Celestials, “It shouldn’t be possible. And yet, it's clearly happening anyway… doesn’t take a damn genius to figure out what’s going on.”
The plane shook once more, violently swaying from side to side for a few moments before regaining some stability, lightning shining through the windows and momentarily lighting up the entire room while I stifled a smirk. This is the part where they ask me about the Apostles again and I politely tell them I can’t say anything. I thought monotonely, looking over at Jessica and giving her a pat on the head, her face pale from fear. “If I had to guess, the hurricane will make it impossible to reach our original target location,” Horde motioned, snapping me out of my half-hearted attempts to reassure my sidekick, turning towards him as he continued, “We won’t be able to deploy directly on top of the mountain, our parachutes would get torn to shreds by the storm.” Huh? I thought, blinking slowly. “Maybe if I stick my head out the window, I could open a portal to teleport us there?” Warpbreaker proposed, raising an eyebrow as the little red ball he had been mindlessly juggling suddenly disappeared, “I could open up some other portals to redirect the wind and ensure we land allright.” That’s not right. I realised, my eyes narrowing slightly as I looked over at Empress in suspicion. Something’s happened. They are ALL acting weird. “No, we all need to conserve our strength as much as possible, like Empress said before,” Crusader grumbled, crossing his arms, “I could force the plane to maintain structural integrity even through the hurricane, for example, but it’s not worth it to risk tiring myself out. We don’t know how strong these Apostles are, after all.”
The discussion didn’t last much longer, however, seeing as a hole was suddenly torn in the ceiling a few seconds later, the extremely irritating screeching sound interrupting any attempt at dialogue, a bat-headed monster leering down at the Celestials below and releasing a dreadful bellowing rattle. Before any of the heroes could react, however, the monster’s warcry was quickly drowned out by the deafening booms of two missile impacts to the side of the creature’s torso, causing it to tumble over and revealing the attack helicopter responsible for the barrage - the combat aircraft swaying from side to side due to the violent winds yet maintaining relative stability. The monster turned towards the source of its pain, screeching incomprehensibly at it despite missing most of its upper body, only for a second volley of missiles to blow its head to smithereens just in time for another monster to swoop in from the side and slash the helicopter’s tail clean off - making it lose control and begin to spiral - the new monster immediately doing a u-turn and chasing after a fighter jet that zoomed past.
“That doesn’t bode very well,” Stalwart callously joked while the original monster’s body slid down the hull of the transport plane, staining the windows, being the first to break the stunned silence everyone was stuck in. It makes sense that the veteran is the most used to something like this. I considered, lightly shaking Jessica from side to side to try and keep her from passing out. “Uhh… Guys…” Seraph politely yet rushedly began, raising an index finger while eyeing the gaping hole from which the sounds of aerial combat and chilly winds were flooding into the plane, “Personally, I think we should drop off before a monster makes this thing explode and kills us all. Preferably right now.” The gathered Celestials were quick to voice their agreement, me included. I know I’ll be fine, but I’m not so sure about Love Love. I considered, looking down at her and at her wide, distressed, puppy-like eyes as she continued to frozenly stare at the hole in the ceiling. It's not even about her physical health at this point. I’m beginning to worry that she’ll have an aneurism if we don’t touch solid ground soon.
