Beware the beast in black

[iron_traitor]

Characters: Judas Liz, Terra, Linkara, stealth Mechakara
Time: Evening
Location: Between the Blackstone and the Bean
Content: Linkara comes running to pick Liz up, but it's not the Liz he knows and loves. PLUS aftermath with Mechakara.
Format: Prose
Warnings: Probably gonna get a bit violent, or at least very creepy.

Comments

[seesonlyred]

Judas had insisted upon facing the Champion alone. Ordinarily, Mechakara would not have accepted such a slight, but the idea of Linkara rushing to meet his girlfriend only to fall to her duplicate's blade was simply too wonderful to pass up. Of course, the robot had no intention of staying away from the fight; he would witness the whole thing.

He'd chosen a nice nearby rooftop as a vantage point. His senses were far superior to a human's, so distance wasn't an issue for him. He watched as Liz chose her hiding place and waited. He watched as Linkara came running, dragging along one of his little friends. Mecha recognized the man from his research: Terra, a Keyblade wielder, like the woman he had fought previously.

It was clear at that point that this fight would not go as Judas had planned. Still, Mecha stayed where he was, watching. If the woman fell, then she wasn't worth working with.

[iron_traitor]

Judas scrambled unsteadily up the stairs of the fire escape where she'd finally gotten away from Linkara and Terra, cursing to herself half the way. Clearly it had been too long since she fought multiple targets, let alone anyone who fought back. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but she couldn't help being angry at herself for underestimating both him and the brunet nuisance with the key...honestly how is that even a good weapon?! And on top of that her pants got scuffed up when she fell.

She considered herself someone with a high tolerance for pain, but she had been lucky enough to not have to include gunshot wounds to the pain list until now, and as the adrenaline started to wear off everything started to really hurt, and this building was entirely way too many stories to climb all the way to the roof, which gradually made her hobbling run become a painful crawl, dragging herself up the stairs with her hands.

[seesonlyred]

As Judas dragged herself up the fire escape, red eyes were tracking her progress from the roof. As Mecha had predicted, the woman had failed in her mission. Had Terra not been there, she likely would have succeeded, but Judas was an assassin. She ought to have been better prepared.

At least she'd managed to get away properly. The robot watched her slow progress up to the roof, tapping his robotic fingers against the edge of the roof thoughtfully. She'd failed, yes. But he knew she was capable; he'd seen what she could do. Mecha didn't like to consider himself forgiving of the faults of humans, but surely any ally was better than none?

Finally, the robot rolled his eyes and started down the fire escape towards Judas. Upon reaching the fallen woman, he looked her over coolly. "Can you stand?"

[iron_traitor]

She didn't look up at the sound of the voice in front of her, but it was obvious enough who it was. Judas didn't say anything in response, out of breath, and instead got a shaky grip on the railing of the stairs, pulling herself back to her feet, pain shooting through her wounded shoulder in protest as she steadied herself against the wall of the building. The bump on the back of her head still throbbed with the memory of Terra's strike, and she felt a sense of vertigo as she lifted her head to finally make eye contact with Mechakara.

Then as she took one last step to meet with him, her body apparently decided at last that it couldn't take it anymore, and she keeled unceremoniously onto him, not even able to catch herself on his shoulders before she blacked out.

[seesonlyred]

Instinctively the robot caught her by the shoulders, tilting his head in order to get a better look at her. Obviously unconscious; he thought he'd seen her catch a blow to the head from Terra's Keyblade. Humans, so weak. Honestly it was rather impressive she'd managed to drag herself away at all.

Mecha sighed to himself, before carefully picking the woman up and starting up the stairs. She wasn't a burden at all, and he quickly reached the top and entered the door he'd come up by. This building was abandoned by the city's inhabitants - at least, now it was. It would do.

He entered the first apartment he came to and laid Judas out on the kitchen table. The wound in her shoulder was the most obvious. Mecha grabbed a few dishrags from a nearby drawer; it would have to be cleaned before anything else. There didn't seem to be any antiseptic around, so he just wet one of the cloths under the sink before turning back to her side.

This wasn't something he was used to doing. Part of him rebelled against it. It smacked of service. Why

[iron_traitor]

The sting of cold water on her shoulder was what woke her. The moment her consciousness returned every injury hit her senses hard, delaying the process of returning to full awareness.

"Uhn...a piece of the world is missing..." she moaned, not fully aware she said it, or why, perhaps a fleeting thought from something she might have been dreaming while she was unconscious. She winced, bringing her free hand to the back of her head in an attempt to cushion the sore bump from the hard wooden surface it rested on, and slowly her eyes opened and adjusted to make out hazy outlines of Mechakara's red eyes in the dark.

[seesonlyred]

The robot stopped what he was doing as Judas began to stir. Her odd proclamation garnered little more than a raised eyebrow; perhaps she'd hit her head harder than he'd thought. If she had a concussion, he was done with this - it would hardly be worth the effort. At any rate, there was no longer any need for him to be the one taking care of her.

"Judas," he greeted tersely, lightly tossing the already-bloodied cloth towards her face. "Here. Tend to your wounds."

[iron_traitor]

Judas barely caught the rag before it hit her face, clenching a fist around it as she sat up suddenly, pointing a finger at Mechakara.

"You! Dammit Pollo, you didn't (ow) warn me about the other brat!"

Forcing herself upright was clearly not the right idea. She grit her teeth to bear it, clamping the wet bloody cloth over the wound to try to slow the bleeding.

[seesonlyred]

Judas's reflexes seemed to be unimpaired, which meant that she likely had no serious head trauma. That was good - disposing of her at this point would have been inconvenient.

Her angry outburst, and the resulting pain, were met with a slightly amused smirk. "It was always possible that Linkara would bring along one of his little friends. Your lack of foresight is not my concern." Though, in truth, he actually had expected Linkara to show up alone. Perhaps the human was finally beginning to learn.

[iron_traitor]

Judas's snarl turned into a sarcastic one.

"Oh gee, I'm sorry, you're right! I should have anticipated that I was going to get the crap beaten out of me by a guy WITH A FUCKING KEY!"

And oh how her head hurt at that statement. She brought a hand up to feel the bump again, checking for blood, though it likely would have been apparent early on. It was still warm and tender, alright.

[seesonlyred]

Mecha's smirk just grew wider. He knew exactly how Judas felt right now - who would anticipate such power from what looked like a child's toy? - but misery loved company. "An assassin should never underestimate her prey."

The robot's face grew serious then. Mockery aside, the woman would do him little good if she was uninformed. "Those keys are highly powerful magical weapons. You witnessed a mere fraction of what they can do."

[iron_traitor]

Judas grumbled at that. Dammit he was right. She shouldn't have gotten so cocky. But it always served her well in the past.

"Well thanks for that little pearl of wisdom, I guess." she muttered, finding a clean spot on the wet dishrag to press gently against the bump, hoping it would be cold enough to be soothing.

[seesonlyred]

Mecha nodded in response. "Linkara has many powerful allies in this place. Luckily, they lack the sense to be cautious. Their public conversations make their weaknesses obvious."

As he spoke, he paced out of the kitchen and glanced around the rest of the apartment he'd chosen. It was a bit small, but acceptable. He returned to Judas's side and peered appraisingly at her wounds. "How quickly can you be active again?"

[iron_traitor]

"This is nothing." she snerked. "Nothing" was probably not the right word if she still couldn't move her arm without hurting it, but at least she was alive.

"Give me a day tops, I'll be right as rain."

[seesonlyred]

That wasn't quite what Mecha had been hoping for. But her injuries could easily be used to their advantage. "Linkara has not yet had time to make your true identity public," he said, taking out his phone to flip through the network. "We must take advantage of this opportunity."

Choosing a contact, he applied some filters to keep the call private and handed the phone to Judas. "That is a friend of Linkara's. Lure him here - I have plans for him."

[iron_traitor]

Judas took the phone, taking a quick glance at the name printed on the screen.

"'Franky?'"

She tilted her head at the photo displayed of the cyborg, smirking a little.

"He's kind of cute."