Heroes and Villains

20 - Escaping

Yumi

We run as fast as we can through the tunnels, following Daniel-san’s lead along with Monkey Paw. They seem to know exactly where to go, but I wonder where they are leading us to.

Shouldn’t we be getting out of the sewers? The walls are caving in everywhere we go.

Yet, they relentlessly press forward, looking determined. With that look on their faces, I have no reason to doubt them.

They stop in front of what seems to be a dead end. I frown, thinking maybe I should have suspected they did not know where they were going after all.

But, surprising me, Monkey Paw reaches towards the wall and pulls one of the bricks from the wall. It triggers a sort of mechanism that opens the wall in front of us and reveals a metal stairway that is still intact despite all the explosions.

“Gah! My nails!” He complains. “I told dad the brick should get pushed, not pulled”

“Don’t be so whiny” Daniel-san says, looking back towards the mutants. “We shall be going to the surface now. This tunnel leads uptown. We have a safe house ready for you there”

I can’t contain my curiosity any further. Looking at Daniel, I reach to gently touch his hand. He blushes at my touch but this seems to get his attention back to me.

“You have been planning this for a long time, haven’t you?” I ask him.

“Not us, exactly…” He says. “Dad somehow knew this was going to happen. He told us to build a safe place for the mutants uptown and to be ready to get them out of the lair at any moment”

“Your dad knew there would be an attack?” I ask, intrigued.

“Yeah… He must have found out about Lady Yuna’s plans long ago” He says. “We have been preparing for nearly five years”

I go silent at the mention of Obaasan. I have to face her. I have to know what is wrong with her for her to want the destruction of the entire downtown.

As we climb the many stairs, Daniel-san places a hand on my shoulder. Looking at him, I notice his understanding look. He knows just how bad I must be feeling with all this. After all, my Obaasan is responsible for the relocation of the entire mutant kind. Not to mention everyone who lived downtown and whose fate is still unknown.

But I have to remain strong now. I can’t let my insecurities cloud my way forward. The most important thing now is to get the mutants to safety and save as many people as we can from downtown. I can handle Obaasan later.

Looking more determined, I smile towards Daniel-san to assure him I am alright and we continue on our way up the stairs, finally reaching a wooden door at the top. Monkey Paw reaches out and pushes the door open, revealing we are now uptown, close to the exit to downtown.

However, it seems they were expecting for the mutants to try to leave through here. Soon enough, a bunch of Hamato soldiers climb out of the stairway leading downtown and point their guns at us.

“Crap, we were NOT expecting that!” Monkey Paw says and gets ready to fight them, pulling out his own guns. “Danny, get everyone to the bar!”

I look at Daniel-san in inquiry but he doesn’t pay attention to me as he looks back at all the mutants.

“Follow me” He tells them. “We are almost there”

“What about your brother?” I ask him.

“Mon can handle himself” He affirms. “Right now, we need to make sure these people are safe”

I nod, knowing where our priorities lie. Also looking at the mutants, I wonder how Mia is faring. She did stay behind at the lair and we haven’t heard from her since. I hope she made it out alright.

We start running, Daniel-san leading the way to the secret safe haven, but we have one more problem we need to address. Monkey Paw is not able to handle all of the soldiers and some of them are following us.

Knowing what I have to do, I stay behind but Daniel grabs my arm, looking at me as if I’m crazy.

“What are you doing?” He asks me. “We have to go”

“They can’t know where you are taking them” I tell him. “I’ll keep them occupied”

“You can’t-” He starts, but I place a finger on his lips to shut him.

“I, too, can handle myself, Daniel-san” I say. “Now, go”

His expression reveals a mix of worry and astonishment but I don’t give him a chance to stop my rash actions. Smiling, I plant a peck on his cheek and take off, pushing through the frightened mutants and kicks one of the soldiers before he has the chance to shoot his laser gun.

He falls to the floor and his head hits a rock, bashing his skull in. This should originate a mess of blood, but the only thing it originates is a surprised Yumi.

I can’t believe my eyes when I see the flashing wires pocking out of the soldier’s head. I have heard that our company had been working on programming robots before. I was in the main robotic team too before coming to Detroit, but I had no idea it was so advanced.

I had just finished working on the AI program before I left and without it, the whole system would collapse. I have no idea how they managed to get these many robots operational.

I do notice the remaining robot soldiers hesitating when they see me, which means they recognize who I am. I shall take this to my advantage.

They may not want to shoot against me, but they will shoot the mutants if they have a chance. I only have to keep them busy long enough for Daniel-san to keep them busy.

This will be easy if they are programmed not to hurt me.

Spinning, I kick the head of yet another robot, hitting the base of its neck. If this were a person, it would immobilize them for a few hours, but because these are robots, it does nothing at all.

The robot just stands there looking at me, as if it is confused on why I am attacking him. The other robots seem to be having the same reaction, completely forgetting about pursuing the mutants.

Strange. Maybe their programming is glitching.

Surprising me even further, they stand up straight at the same time and turn around to walk away from me. Confused, I watch them as they leave, acting as if nothing happened. Not that they could act like anything. They are machines after all.

I look around to make sure there is no other robot soldier trying to follow the mutants and when I am certain the coast is clear, I follow the robots cautiously.

Unsurprisingly, they head towards Hamato Industries and enter the place without any problem. Security acts as if they belong there. In fact, now I realize that the robot’s clothing is very similar to the ones used in our security team back in Japan.

Obaasan really is responsible for all this and these robots must be going back to report what has happened and that I was there too, fighting for the mutants’ side.

Well, they won’t have to report anything. I can speak for myself. It is time Obaasan hears what I have to say.

Michelle

Avoiding the wreckage left behind by the explosions all across downtown, I try to focus my vision and sense of smell to track down the mutants. They are close, I can feel it.

I run as fast as my feet allow me, my heart still aching over the loss of Gideon. I can’t let anyone else die. I will NOT let anyone else die today.

Sounds of a struggle uptown grab my attention and I rush that way, thinking it may be the mutants. I am not too far from the truth as I see Monkey Paw expertly fighting off many of those robot soldiers. I can’t see any of the other mutants anywhere.

Rushing in, I rip apart a robot that was about to shoot Monkey Paw. He looks at me with his usual cocky smirk as he continues fighting the robots.

“Glad to see you again, kitty” He says as he shoots one of the robots with his gun. “I was starting to think you were going to miss all the fun”

I ignore his remark and continue taking down the robot soldiers.

“Where are the mutants?” I ask him, hitting a robot in the chest.

“Danny took them away” He says. “They should be in the safe place by now”

“That safe place being where?” I ask him.

“Now, now, kitty” He says, again with the cocky smirk. “You don’t want me to reveal the safe haven’s location in front of our enemies, do you?”

“You will reveal it once there are no enemies to hear us!” I shout, getting annoying at his cockiness.

I still have a hard time accepting I am fighting side by side with this guy. He is just so… self-centered. It’s irritating.

I don’t have much time to get annoyed with him, though, as a strange sound catches my cat ears attention. While Monkey Paw is busy dealing with the robots, I look around to try to figure out where the sound is coming from.

My eyes grow wide when I realize what it is: A timer.

This whole platform is set to go off in less than a minute, taking down the only way into downtown and eliminating any connection uptown may have to it.

That explains why the usual stairway guards are nowhere to be seen. It explains why there are robots here to try to stop anyone from escaping their fate. They intend to make this whole place vanish from existence.

Thinking fast, I grab the grappling hook Yumi lent me and shoot it at the far side of uptown, making sure it will give us enough coverage. Now I just have to get that stupid monkey out of here.

Stepping back to get some balance, I jump at the exact same time the massive bomb goes off and manage to grab Monkey Paw as the grappling hook pulls us to safety.

But of course, it couldn’t be that easy. No, the author just had to end this chapter with a cliff hanger.

As I grab a hold of Monkey Paw, one of the robots manages to jump and grab onto my leg. I try to kick it, but feel the grip of the grappling hook start to fail due to the weight.

Monkey Paw shakes his head as if he has read my mind. Not hesitating, I shove the handle of the grappling hook to his hands and push away from him, making sure he manages to go all the way up to safety.

I continue kicking the robot and do manage to punch it away from me just as the flames and the shockwave from below engulf me and I lose consciousness.

I don’t know how I am going to survive this, but cats always land on their feet, right?