Chapter 32: Kidnapping VIII - Unwilling Violence

“What did you just do?” Bobcat’s eyes widened. “What are those?”

He pointed at the empty bottles with shaking fingers. “Where did those come from?!”

“I’m not telling you—and you shouldn’t expect to remember this either,” Annabelle said, baring her teeth in a snarl. “I’m going to beat it out of your memory. Before you complain, just know that you forced me to do this. If you just let me go after I cut the ropes, everything would have been fine, but you pushed me this far!”

She took a step forward. Whereas each step made her wince from her shredded soles, her boosted vitality dampened her sense of pain—or rather, her tolerance for it. She slammed her fist into her palm, testing her newfound strength.

Her skin seemed tougher, almost hardening like a non-newtonian fluid on impact. Her strength wasn’t quite doubled, but the boost was noticeable.

Previously, her greatest weakness had been her lack of strength, so she had to resort to tricks and martial arts to lock people stronger and less skilled than her down. No longer. She felt as if she was a warrior mech rather than a knight, throwing all caution to the wind in favor of dealing devastating blows.

The temporary boosters seem to last around seven minutes. I’ll have to be quick about it.

The worst case scenario would be if her enemies found out about the time limit and began to run away. 

Well, perhaps it would be better if they scattered and ran—altogether, she took three boosters: strength, agility, vitality. All of her physical aspects have been boosted, but that didn’t mean she was invincible.

If they scattered, she could chase them down one by one, which was better than being outnumbered.

In any case, she had to finish everything quickly.

Her gaze sharpened as she decided on her first target—the most dangerous one, Bobcat. Gecko seemed unsteady on his feet and his eyes were unfocused. Chameleon wasn’t much of a fighter, so if she made sure Bobcat was out of the picture, the rest would be much easier.

No, that wasn’t actually the reason. It was because out of everyone here, she liked Bobcat the least—pretentious, bossy, aloof. He disparaged Gecko to boost up his own image. Worst of all, he was the leader of this whole stupid operation. 

Annabelle wanted him to eat dirt and she was going to make him.

Slowly, she drew closer to the trio. Neither of them gave ground. After the initial surprise from the glass bottles, Bobcat seemed to have dismissed them completely from his mind in favor of focusing on the upcoming.

With a start, she realized that they had no idea she was completely different from before—after all, her outwards appearance hadn’t changed. As far as she knew, no stimulants or performance enhancing drug available worked as quickly as the temporary boosters did.

Her first strike would be unexpected, and she had to make that one strike count before the others could adjust...

Ten steps. Nine steps away. Eight steps.

Bobcat was still mostly relaxed.

Seven steps, and suddenly she broke into a run with a cry, accelerating faster than she had ever before, reaching right in front of Bobcat’s face with blurring speed before he could put up his guard—before he could even blink.

“Hya!”

Her first blow, a hook with her right arm, slammed into his face, pounding into his cheekbone. She barely registered the pain from the impact, only the now-satisfying sensation of a punch solidly landed.

Bobcat’s head snapped to the side from the force. She followed up with her left arm, slamming Bobcat’s head back the other way with barely a pause.

Another punch later and Bobcat was staggering on his feet, ready to fall. 

Droplets of blood seemingly hung still in the air as time slowed down. As Annabelle watched the man’s contorted face, she bared her teeth, filled with disgust, unable to match it with the serious and unassailable man who had been so threatening a moment ago.

Now he was weak, unable to back up his words with actions. Even back in the academy she hated those big talkers that slunk away whenever a challenge came up. Such people deserved no respect from her, from anyone.

“You’re not getting away!” Annabelle lunged forward and grabbed his collar, pulling him into one punch after another. The man went limp in her grip, but she was now strong enough to support his weight with one hand as she drove her fist into his face over and over. 

As her arm grew tired, she used both arms to hold him up instead. Gritting her teeth, she pulled Bobcat down at the same time she bursted upwards, ramming the top of her head into his face.

“Go to hell!”

“This is all your fault!”

“If it wasn’t for you...”

The more she yelled, the harder she hit. She never wished for any of this to happen. These people were in the wrong. It was only self defense!

She only vaguely felt something batter her from her side thanks to her skin that were almost armored until suddenly something crashed into her temple, making her vision flash and fill with stars. Her stomach turned and she almost threw up.

Instead of headbutting again, she dug her feet into the ground for stability and blindly swung the limp body in her grasp in the direction the blow came from. A gasp of surprise followed by the sound of heavy bodies hitting the ground reached her ears and she didn’t bother checking the aftermath.

She turned on the person left standing, who had scrambled back, and she narrowed her eyes when she saw him.

“Chameleon!” she screamed. You opposed me every step of the way here!

She jumped at him, the whole of her body weight ramming into him, sending them tumbling to the ground. With surprising strength, Chameleon managed to stop with himself on top, holding her down, pinning both of her arms against the ground. 

As much as she tried or struggled, she couldn’t get the leverage to break free.

“Get off!” she shouted, glaring up at his bloodshot eyes.

“Shut up, you rabid psycho!” Chameleon snarled back.

She gritted her teeth before she finally stopped struggling, as if she had given up. As on edge as Chameleon was, he would have taken any excuse to stop, so he relaxed too, and that was the moment Annabelle kicked up, her knee slamming squarely between Chameleon’s legs.

The man’s eyes almost seemed to roll up into his skull and his legs turned to jelly, falling on top of her. 

Groaning, the man rolled off of her before curling into a ball. Annabelle scrambled after him, forcing him out of his shell, exposing his front to her. She dropped her whole weight on him, straddling his chest, and struck him in his face.

“Damn. You. What. Did I. Ever. Do. To. You?!”

She slammed down with each word she uttered. “Psycho this, psychopath that, what do you even have against me?”

Most of her punches didn’t even hit where she intended, but she didn’t bother aiming either. Chameleon’s raised hands blocked the worst of the storm, but his arms were already red and bruising.

“How dare you accuse me of anything when you kidnapped me from my bed? Well?!”

She didn’t stop and continued to pummel him. Somewhere inside, she knew that she should have stopped a long time ago, but she didn’t. Until huge hands grabbed her arm that was winding up for another blow, stopping it cold. 

Annabelle whirled around to find Bear gazing at her. “Let go!”

She struggled, but she found that her arm would barely budge even with her enhanced strength. She was firmly in Bear’s grasp. Both instinctively and logically, she knew she couldn’t beat him now that he had her. 

Instead of hitting her though, the big man just shook his head, looking behind her.

Annabelle huffed and turned back to look at what Bear wanted her to see, and the breath caught in her throat. For the first time, she saw Chameleon. He wasn’t moving except the shallow breathes he was taking. 

His arms were wrapped protectively around his head. The back of his forearms were almost completely black and purple.

When nothing hit him for a while, the downed man finally dropped his arms raised in a guard. His eyes had long closed.

Annabelle swallowed. 

“I... I did this.” She licked her lips and dropped her raised fist that had been poised to strike Chameleon. “I did this to him.”

The blood on her fist, some of it already dried and flaking, proved her deeds. “What is wrong with me...?”

The pressure on her arm suddenly vanished as Bear let her go. 

“Why did—” Her voice died away when she saw the giant lying on the ground. His lower chest was still bleeding despite his efforts to stem the flow. Even if he had managed to do so earlier, his efforts to come stop here must have reopened the flimsy scab that would have formed. Perhaps his ribs really did break off and were stabbing into his flesh. He might even die.

And she was the one that had cut him with her knife.

There were also Bobcat and Gecko, still piled up from when she threw Bobcat at Gecko, what seemed like an eternity before. Bobcat had fainted on the spot, no longer moving, while Gecko didn’t have the strength to push the larger man away after losing so much blood.

Out of everyone here, she was the only one still standing.

“I won... I won, but that’s not how I wanted it to be...”

There was so much blood. This was battle—no, battle was even worse. At least here she had never tried to intentionally kill anyone, while battles were a matter of life and death. 

“This is the future I chose?” she muttered.

Annabelle shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

She never chose to pilot mechs. It’s the path that the woman who was once her mother chose for her. For twenty years, she pursued a false future. Was it all a waste?

“I know nothing else but violence all my life, but violence does not suit me... What should I do?”

Suddenly, a tremor ran through the ground, causing the top of the ballast around the train tracks to rattle, interrupting her thoughts.

Annabelle stood up, stepping away from Chameleon’s unconscious body.

“What was that?” she asked, looking around.