Chapter 26, This is not the Empire State Building.

Paris, Champ de Mars, Eiffel Tower, Montparnasse Tower

Team Champ de Mars.

While Sei and Anzu were opening a new war front and Takashi reenacted the Battle of the Eagles, Kato and Kaze found themselves surrounded by two whole troops.

Kato did a move he prepared in the VR room. It was inspired by Takashi from second iteration of a movie on a red armored hero. It depicted the worries, tribulations, trials and pains said hero went through. He was joined by a longtime friend whose actor was changed. A good thing according to Takashi. Waiting for the monkeys to pile on him, Kato suddenly spun on himself, his swords extended to their maximum reach. The gory chick kebab he got, would make anyone puke.

At the same time, his partner Kaze was doing a similar but also different thing. With a move that only a martial artist could pull. After the start of the melee, Kaze used his suit’s built in gravity guns to blow them away in every direction. The throw would not be powerful enough to kill them, what followed would. Kaze’s HUD displayed the position of every single one of them. He used this information to “grab” one of them and pull him toward him at a fast speed, only to blow him away again at the same speed. Reducing the monkey’s every single bone and organ to a pulp. He was working as a machine. While one arm was punching a monkey, the other one was grabbing the next one. None of the group touched ground before getting a round of his treatment.

Near the Champ de Mars, Police HQ.

“Bring these people further away, we don’t know if more arrivals will happen. I want a list of every single one of them, where they were at the moment of the transfer, if they add people with them and if they lost properties. The streets will stay locked out for the time being, we will collect every piece possible and get it back.”

“Yes sir.” Said the officer next to him, wondering who this guy was after all. They only got orders to listen to him and a name, Philippe, not even complete. None of them new if it was even the real one.

Team Montparnasse Tower.

Takashi was speeding along the buildings, taking care not to touch any on them so as to not provoke a catastrophe. Pulling up in the candle maneuver, he ended in a looping going back toward the Eiffel Tower where the team started to be overwhelmed.

On the Montparnasse Tower, on the wall near the top of the building, a female figure was waiting for her turn to shine. Her desire to prove her worth to her boyfriend never ended. 200 meters, they were still far away. As the police’s teams tried to clear to street, she readied herself for the incoming stamped. The monkeys rushed to her, ready to climb the tower after wreaking havoc on the street. Upturned cars, crumbling stores’ fronts, personal items and blood, as not all civilians could be transferred out before being hurt. 150 meters, still time until she needed to act. Thankfully for them, they were now safely away, healed, waiting behind the police’s perimeter, forced to back out further away.

100 meters downside of her, almost ready. The monkeys were rabid, speeding in her direction as they popped more and more eggs from their backs. It would be difficult to kill them all. It would have been hell without Takashi’s intervention.

50 meters, NOW.

Reika triggered the grenades, claymores and her guns as the snipers kept shooting at the Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars. Reika’s enemies were shredded, blown apart, transferred to oblivion, or pummeled to death as they lost their footing on the building facade. Theses primates never go nearest to her than 25 meters.

Eiffel Tower, Team Aerial Corps.

Zoe, better known as Squirrel by her team was a very introverted teenage girl. Emancipated, independent, not fully money-sufficient, but still holding up. The only enjoyment she had was the parkour. The feeling of total freedom. No rules, no obligations, no attachments, only yourself and the run. She never tried to supplant the others runners. Never tried to be the best, the fastest, or whatever.

She just… was.

Her life changing event was her murder. She would have called it an accident at first. But not now. Her time with the people of her gantz’ team helped her realize many things. That she could choose the people she wanted to keep around her. That she was important to other people. That her abilities were useful. Bossy Victor, motherly Camille, sarcastic Frederic and annoying Richard, they all became important for her, just as she become a support for them. She could surprise their targets from unsuspected angles. And now, with Takashi’s help? It was even better. He acted like a big brother to her, filling a role she didn’t realize she needed. It was weird, but as he told her himself, what wasn’t weird in gantz?

Time to use what she train to in the VR room. She was the only one who could pull it off.

Zipping to the Eiffel Tower, she flew then hold her arms in the tower direction, using her speed and the gravity guns built in her suit to rip out the monkeys out of the tower. Rolling on herself, she used a pendulum move to crash the two first monkeys on the ground, killing them instantly. These two done, she reached for the two next ones, which she crashed together.

Careful now, and… Done. She had to be focused to go through the tower, between the metal parts of the structure. Never forgetting to grab monkeys as she did so. She used the inbuilt thruster of her suit or pendulum moves along the tower to keep her speed, gain some, play with her altitude and decimate the monkeys’ ranks. She didn’t even have to grab the monkeys for long, just enough to pull them from the tower, letting them fall to their death. She dived to the ground, swinging under the tower and pulling a candle on the other side. Havoc in her wake. She didn’t even know how many of these guys she killed anymore.

Team Eiffel Tower.

Victor, Kurono, Frederic, Richard and Tom were fighting for survival now. They wouldn’t really die after Takashi’s updates, but the monkeys kept multiplying over and over. It lasted until one of the monkeys looked at the moon. It froze for maybe half a second. Victor almost got it at the time but another pest threw itself in the gun’s line of sight, protecting what became their nightmare. Victor was trying to fight against it in close combat, a difficult task after it grew to a whole 10 meters high. The monkey’s arms were more than six meters long, more than enough for it to climb whatever facade of the tower it wanted. This wasn’t the Empire State Building for god sake.

“Try to hold him still, I’m bringing the big guns.” He heard Takashi say.

Clenching his teeth, the french firefighter was holding two of the monkey’s arms. He was about to get pummeled to goo when Frederic’s shots distracted it, winning just enough time for Richard to grab the two other arms. Now they only had to be careful of it’s Medusa’s like tails. If only Tom could help them now.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ASSHOLE!”