Cosmic Phoenix walked into the village, his reputation proceeding him. The mercenaries seemed like they were trying to measure the man behind the mask, but none dared to raise a hand to him. He walked up to the bar, sitting there silently as death itself. Eventually, he spoke. “Are we doing this one at a time or all at once? Because I’d rather we skip your ignorant pride and you tell her that I’m here.”
The mercenaries sat quietly, looking among themselves. Unsure of what to do. It was moments later when the tavern was engulfed in a blast large enough to level the town that their decision was made for them. Sculptura sighed from her safe perch some distance away, “You just can’t get good help these days. That said, their bounties make up for it.” She looked closer at the blast, annoyed when she saw Cosmic Phoenix on his surfglider flying towards her perch. She sighed, tiring of his stubborn nature and turning on her aerial defense network, she stepped inside, the heavy metal doors sealing her in. She continued towards her hidden elevator and took it down to the sub-basement.
As he flew, he tapped the side of his cutlass on his glider, the blade beginning to ring out through the fabric of space and time. A giant robotic lioness appeared in a flash of orange light and he jumped off the glider as it was shot down, landing on the head of the lioness. Placing the tip of his blade on the head of the robo-beast, he phased through it into his piloting chamber. Drawing his blade from the pedestal it now rested in, the lioness took on a humanoid shape as it charged. Drawing his pistol, his machine did the same and the basic firing function reduced the surface estate and all its defenses to nothing but atoms. Dropping out of the bottom of the robot as it ran over the elevator shaft, he fell hundreds of stories before landing on and crushing the now empty elevator just enough to exit the shaft on the ground floor.
Her voice echoed through the large cavern. “You took your time. I imagined you would have gotten here sooner.”
He sighed, “Can we cut the melodrama? You and I both know how this ends.”
She laughed, “Oh? I’m sorry. I just figured being responsible for the deaths of count-“
He cut her monologue, “We both know that you planted the bomb and they were all criminals. You also know I don’t lose sleep over that. So let’s cut to the part where you drop the cavern on me, I blast it away, and you come out here to fight me, confident that I won’t kill you.”
Sculptura walked out, a scowl on her face. 8 years. 8 years of this punk ruining her life, getting in her way, and preventing Anisa from sublimating. She growled, “Why?! Why won’t you stop!? Why won’t you die? What is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me?” He cleared his throat, “You kidnapped my friend’s body. You killed my childhood heroes. You hitched a ride from pirates in return for my planet. You went around the cosmos killing people and hiring assassins to get me to go away. Do I need to keep going?”
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She shouted, “You could have stopped! You could have gone home and left me alone but instead you chased me across all of space, ruined all of my employment, kept me from planting roots, killed all of my work friends! Why do all of this!?”
He looked directly at her and said firmly, “Because when I lost everything, you came and took the only friend who stood by me. So when you took everything from her, I owed it to her to try.”
Sculptura’s face grew more and more outraged and furious. She spat, “I was going to try and bury you in here, but now I know exactly what I’ll do. I’ll bury all of us. You want your friend? You can keep her for all of eternity. I hope you enjoy rotting away while I wait for a less troublesome host.”
He sighed, “You keep for-“ she pushed a button and the cavern began to cave in, cutting him off. He fired his pistol into the ceiling a few times to clear the debris as it fell, Sculptura diving in to try and poison him. It was enough trouble. They just both needed to die and she would just try again the next time she was dug up. 8 years was not enough time but it wasn’t worth the constant destruction and death that was getting in her way. She would let her accounts get interest and come back for them after.
While she did land the blow she wanted, causing her a brief surge of joy, she felt a stab into her rib. Looking down, it was an auto-injector. She could feel her whole body engulfed in searing pain like fire traveling through her bloodstream. As some of the debris continued to fall on them, she could do nothing but writhe from the chemicals that had just been injected. A massive orange metal hand broke through the debris and grabbed the pair, lifting them to the surface. Once they were safe on the surface once more, the hand opened, Cosmic Phoenix removing his helmet. Shawn examined the now still form of Anisa, thankful that most of the visual changes had been reverted. Pulling out a scanner he sighed, “15% percent dna change... but that should keep dropping as the counter-agent works. Alright, Let’s get you to Sienna.” The hand brought the two to the chest of the mechanical warrior and a compartment opened for passengers, Shawn carrying her inside.
When he arrived to to the Clinic, Sienna looked her over and nodded, “Singular nervous system. No secondary wave forms in the brain. The old paths are still there and will take time to be repaired but she should be getting back to standard minus some potential upgrades.” Looking at them again she sighed, “We may have to do some cognitive therapy or neural surgery to reconnect her pathways to her motor function where the parasite hijacked them. But I’m seeing brain activity and her basic vital functions seem to be working just fine.”
Shawn watched her carefully and walked over to the other bed. “I appreciate your help doing this, Sienna.”
She laughed, “You single handedly saved us from a Shuian invasion. This is the least I could do.”
Anisa heard all of this, exhausted from the ordeal as the solution was no less unpleasant for her. She felt every second of the parasite’s death. She could feel every part of her body still burning as the serum worked its way through her system. Still, just having her mind back to herself was something to celebrate. After eight years it was finally over.
