Post by Lady Arcadia on Jun 8, 2019 19:30:36 GMT
One would imagine that the roof of a pristine Lamborghini would be a bad choice for a working bench, especially if the person in question is using it to tinker on an assault rifle with a plasma torch. However, could you imagine that despite all the wealth and all the useless crap which the manor of Gonzaga-Altamirano had, the entire damn thing did not have even a single workbench! Not one which would be fitting for Estrella's level of expertise, at least. And after an unfortunate incident involving some chemicals which she believed would make for great incendiary grenades, she was no longer allowed to be tinkering in her room, so... Lamborghini it is!
Apparently such menial labor was not befitting of a noble lady like her, as her father and mother would say. Come on, was every single member of her dynasty preceding her so damn boring? Oh, well, last she remembered, they were knights under the service of the Spanish Crown and stuff... that must have been a far more fulfilling life than just sitting locked up in a manor all day and collecting benefits from successful franchises. Going outside, meeting people, fighting other knights... Well, guess what, she's going to make her own life just as interesting as that and nobody can stop her!
Unless...
"Marquise Estrella, what in the world are you doing to your father's car?!" suddenly reached the teenager's ears from the entrance to the garage. It was one of the butlers at the service of her father and mother, he must have heard all the sounds coming from inside and hurried to check... his worried and shocked expression certainly betrayed so. Estrella pulled off the protective mask hiding her face, turned off her plasma torch and yelled back:
"It's okay, it's okay, it's not like the car got ruined or anything!"
In a single graceful leap, Estrella landed on the floor of the garage with her modified weapon in her hands. While the teenager was pushing and pulling several switches on the side of the rifle and switching cartridges to see if everything works as intended, the even more shocked butler started carefully approaching her.
"Marquise Estrella... what are you-" and then leapt to the side with a shriek when the teenager accidentally pointed the weapon straight at him.
"Psh, don't worry, this thing's in safe mode." Estrella casually blurted out, then pressed a switch on her weapon. "Okay, now it isn't, you can start worrying."
"What are you... doing here... Marquise Estrella?.." the butler muttered out, cowering behind the newest model BMW, but keeping tabs on the teenager with his eyes regardless. In response to him, she merely shrugged and replied:
"Oh, not much, you know," With that statement, Estrella turned her modified assault rifle back to safe mode and pulled it over her back, making her way towards the garage door. "I figured I might need more firepower going out this time, so I installed a few gadgets on this rifle of mine. Nothing too extraordinary - just a miniaturized coilgun design, nothing much..."
Ah... Ignoring the fact that Estrella dismissed technologies which all of humanity had never seen before as mere "gadgets", that was always the case with the Marquise and her parents couldn't care less about making her inventions public, the butler caught note of her declaring that she's going out. And she needs firepower. Indeed, she has been spending her time outside more and more recently, and getting excited over it. It wouldn't be anything too problematic had Estrella not been making guns specifically for these outings... which just made everything confusing.
"If you don't mind asking me, miss... do you mean going out alone or?"
"Alone? Tsk, nah. Amadeo should be waiting for me outside."
"A-Amadeo?.."
The garage door slid open, rays of reddish evening sunlight immediately blasting the whole room and forcing Estrella to cover her eyes while she stared to the distance.
"You were... not supposed to know about his existence. And... it would be best if you avoided him, too." the butler muttered out, staring at the young Marquise from behind his cover. Estrella merely turned towards him for a second and raised her eyebrow.
Indeed... Amadeo was an odd, odd beast. A teen only a few years older than her, who one day suddenly caught up to her, while she was just making her way across the city, and explained exactly what connects them both. That they have the same father - even though one of them lived in wealth and luxury while the other crashed through orphanage after orphanage. And, as odd as it was, Estrella grew to believe him. Even though, when she brought that name back home and asked her father about it, he merely shut the door and ignored her all night long. Even though Amadeo himself seemed extremely cryptic about it all - he didn't explain why he was only concerned with her father, he didn't explain why he was blonde when neither one of her parents had that gene anywhere in their history... He clearly did not bear ill will, he offered Estrella an escape from the boring locked down life she had.
And, perhaps most importantly, he was the only other person she knew who could see ghosts.
"You..."
As soon as... "Estrella" got a clear view of the person she was facing, as soon as the name suppressed and chained by blocks inside her mind left his mouth, the carefree sadistic smile on her face faded instantly. Instantly, it found itself replaced by anger and frustration. Amadeo, on the other hand, still struggled to comprehend what was going on before his eyes. This... this can't be Estrella, can it? It would be so easy to dismiss this woman as just some unfortunately similar looking villain. After all... Estrella never used a sword. Estrella never had glowing red eyes. Estrella never murdered people. Estrella never murdered people!
And yet... even if clouded by all the foreign Hollow Reiatsu... there was still a familiar spirit beneath it all. Especially since it clearly recognized his face.
"Estrella... what the hell happened to you?!" Amadeo yelled out. Instead of receiving an answer, however, he merely saw the woman pull out her Asauchi, infusing it with her corrupted energy and striking forth. Instantly, the vigilante was put on the defense, using the long handle of his war hammer to block and deflect his half-sister's strikes. However, despite finding plenty of opportunities to retaliate during the offensive, Amadeo did not go for any one of them. There's gotta be a way how to stop her and get her to her senses, and smashing her to a pulp, or getting smashed himself, was not the way to it.
Which meant that he had to go for an alternative approach.
"So you know who I am? What is my name?" Amadeo called out and leapt backwards, using Shunpo to accelerate across the empty complex and increase the distance between him and Estrella. Surprisingly, the woman did not run after him, remaining in place and locking her eyes onto him.
"Have you gotten hit in the head so hard that you've already forgotten it?.."
Suddenly, the vigilante came to a screeching halt, nearly planting his face onto the dirty floor before he managed to recollect himself and remain upright. Tendrils sprouting from the floor had tied around his foot, pulling him back and locking him in place. Even more of the tendrils started shooting out, constricting his arms and legs, forcing him to let go of his hammer and drop it to the floor. That... that wasn't something Estrella could do, either. From all which Amadeo remembered of her, the powers granted to her by her Reishi manifested a lot more subtly than this. Hell, she didn't even know that she was anything special the last time the two of them met, only later did he personally come to terms with it...
"You are... You are..." the woman muttered under her breath as she approached the desperately struggling vigilante, then stopped. "You are Amadeo and..."
Faced with a surge of memories suddenly rushing into her mind at the mention of the vigilante's name, Estrella suddenly released a grunt and clutched onto her forehead, stumbling across the floor while she struggled to eradicate the mental conflict within. What the...
What happened to you, Est?.. How long have they not seen each other? Ever since her parents mysteriously vanished in the Pyrenees, didn't they? Amadeo moved on in life, opting to use his powers for good and eventually coming across the orange-haired Shinigami, while Estrella closed herself in her newly inherited mansion for months. But it still hasn't been that long of a time, has it? Only...
Four years.
And after those four years...
This is where they've ended up. From teenagers, facing their first Hollows together, before they even knew what those things are, to bitter enemies. One-sidedly so, but still.
Clenching his teeth and releasing a pained grunt, Amadeo pulled his arm out of the mysterious constriction, taking advantage of his adversary being distracted, then grabbed his weapon and, for the first time since seeing Estrella face-to-face again, sent a swing her way. A powerful left hook with an electrified hammer, which might have done serious damage to the woman had her Asauchi not blocked it at the last second.
"...I don't care who you are. You're just frustrating me." gushed out through the woman's teeth, with vitriol and disgust which Amadeo had never seen from the generally nice and collected, if often overconfident girl. "Thankfully, though, at least your soul is bountiful enough to be reaped."
Amadeo blocked a few of Estrella's initial cuts and slashes before yelling out in response. "Reaping my soul?! You didn't even believe in souls last time we met!" What the hell happened during those four years?! The close quarters clash between the two warriors continued for a few more seconds before the assault became too intense for the vigilante to handle. Suddenly, the blade slipped through, sending a painful cut straight through Amadeo's shoulder, piercing through fabric, skin and flesh on its way and leaving an intensely bleeding wound. And not only was it bleeding... it felt like it was burning, as if a corrupting foreign energy had just entered his bloodstream. While the vigilante stumbled back, clutching onto his wound and getting ready to retaliate, Estrella stopped, raising her Asauchi horizontally, pressed onto the handle of the weapon and muttered:
"Death Sign: Spirit Shackle."
Amadeo instantly released a blood-curdling scream, all the foreign energy within his body manifesting a powerful paralyzing shock. Gasping for air, he collapsed to one knee. In almost an instant, all the stamina within his body seemingly went down the drain... while a foreign energy started to slowly eat him from inside.
"You couldn't... manifest your Reishi like that either. Hell, had I told you such a thing exists, you would have laughed at my face..." Amadeo weakly muttered, gasping with each breath, watching his sister slowly walk up to him. "Either you got really damn good in those four years... or you are not my sister at all."
"Shut up." was what he received in response, followed by a knee straight into his gut, which knocked the wind out of him even more. "Just hearing you talk makes me sick."
"Oh... oh yeah?.." Amadeo faintly muttered, watching the Hollow Reiatsu infused blade loom over him like a sword of Damocles. "Guess that means... I should annoy you even more? Tell you that your fashion sense has gone worse since then? Or that I preferred you being the ranged support to my melee? Or..."
He had little to no clue what he was trying to achieve here. Annoy Estrella into remembering who he is? Who she is? It couldn't possibly work... Spend the last seconds of his life by annoying her? That'd be such a humiliating fate... Thankfully, however, luck seemed to be on his side. A small shroud of purple psionic energy suddenly ensnared the woman, locking her sword-wielding arm in place moments before the final strike. Right before she could react to what was going on, Estrella found herself blown aside, rolling across the floor of the dimly lit factory for several dozen meters before finally coming to a stop.
"Looks like I got here in time, unlike-"
"If you dare to say "unlike me", I will toss you straight into her maws."
The person who had just intervened in the brawl was the same one to whom Amadeo had been conversion through hologram earlier - Carla Mason, a fellow high-spec human and an ally in fighting for justice. A short Hispanic brunette with a pair of glasses on her nose, right hand outstretched and glowing with psionic energy, focused towards the flinged Estrella. Weakly, Amadeo pulled himself back onto his feet, picked up his war hammer and continued:
"What are you... even doing here?"
"Truth be told, I... had a bad feeling about this from the start," Carla replied. "This person whom we were going after was clearly not a Hollow, and yet their sufficiency surpassed a whole horde of them, on a good day. And I was conflicted on whether I should go help out directly, but... looks like underestimating you turned out to be the correct option."
"S-shut up..." left Amadeo's mouth, followed by a weak grunt. Estrella, or whatever that thing was, seemed oddly amused by Carla's appearance, tilting her head and remaining in place - the two vigilantes maintained full focus on her regardless, however. "And I... ran into some unforseen factors. Which put me on the back foot..."
"Like what?"
"Like, that thing is- LOOK OUT!"
The woman finally opted to make a move, suddenly charging forward at speeds unfathomable for an average person and aiming straight towards Carla. The telepath reacted on instinct, throwing her hands forward and sending her full psionic force towards Estrella. Her Reiatsu was too crushing for her psionics to blow her aside when she wasn't completely unprepared, however, it barely managed to even slow her down. In the brief milliseconds of time she had before impact, Carla frantically went through all of her options available. There's... There's got to be something! Maybe I can trip her, or cast an illusion, or...
In a fit of desperation and instinct, the telepath linked her and the assassin's minds together. Instantly, thousands of thousands of memories started flashing by her at the speed of light, each one burning itself in Carla's memory. All her emotions, all her thoughts, all her feelings...
You were... not supposed to know about his existence. And... it would be best if you avoided him, too.
///
Estrella? Ehehe...
///
Excuse me, this is a weird question, but... can you see me?
///
Estrella? Ehehe...
///
If it's fear which is gripping you... then please, let yourself loose. You have all the reason to be afraid.
///
Estrella? Ehehe...
///
Lemon meringue. She ordered lemon meringue. You had a cappucino. ...You ordered some after she did.
///
Estrella? Ehehe...
Such a dumb name for you to make up. But don't you remember? You were always known as Arcadia. Your parents called you Arcadia. Your sister called you Arcadia. Mistress Eleanor calls you Arcadia.
Your mind must be playing tricks on you. It only makes sense for you to be called Arcadia, doesn't it? Your sister's name is a flower. And Arcadia is a utopia with nature, a field of the most beautiful, precious flowers...
Why would your parents ever call you "Estrella", then?
Besides...
You want the pain to stop, don't you?
The truth is, I am not doing this to you out of any malice. I just want to help. You've got a lot of lies rattling in that dome of yours and Poppi just want you to see the truth...
So if you want it to stop, simply repeat with me:
My name is...
"Oh god..." Carla weakly muttered. The enormous barrage of information was overwhelming and overloading her mind and senses alike, and in the face of an opponent out for blood... she simply collapsed to the floor.
"CARLA!" Amadeo roared out. It was up to him to save them both now - and the vigilante leapt forward, meeting Estrella's slash with his torso and stopping it by having it run straight across his chest. A gaping, rapidly bleeding wound was now running across much of his upper body, the pain, as well as the burn, was unbearable... but Amadeo grit his teeth and remained standing. The woman before him was already reaching out to the hilt of her blade to cast her technique, but she did not receive the chance this time. Suddenly, the end of a powerful war hammer strike collided with her face - while it wasn't enough to smash her to bits by a long shot, it did send her flying and give him a bit more distance to work with.
This was a losing battle... that one's for sure. But Carla, in the midst of her telepathic attack, seemed to have received an epiphany. At the absolute least, he needs to pull her out of danger and put whatever she uncovered to use.
Estrella recovered from getting smashed aside in a mere few seconds and sprang off one of the walls of the factory to charge at the two vigilantes yet again. Amadeo's vision was starting to blur from the blood loss and he was starting to struggle staying upright - the least he can do is cover their retreat, somehow...
For that, the vigilante suddenly powered his hammer with all his might, grabbed the unconscious Carla with one hand and smashed the ground with another. Powerful shockwaves instantly rolled across, bolts of electric charge slammed into the walls and the ceiling, until the entire complex started to crumble under the pressure. Block after block of eroded concrete started falling from the sky, each one whipping up clouds of dust and obscuring vision. Estrella's path towards the two vigilantes turned more difficult until a wall finally collapsed onto her - whether she brushed it aside or got buried under meters of concrete was a question Amadeo needed no answer to. He just pulled Carla over his shoulder and ran. Ran as fast as he could, leaping out of the collapsing building, leaving his motorcycle behind and running towards the nearest bridge and jumped under it. Sure, all the unfiltered river water nearby made it less than sanitary when he had fresh bleeding wounds across his body, but... it's going to give them cover for at least a few minutes, and that's all he needed.
Amadeo pulled Carla off and placed her on the wet mossy ground, resting her back on one of the bridge's beams. Thankfully, she didn't pass out for long, her eyes were slowly opening as he was placing her down.
"Earth to Carla... Respond to me..." Amadeo spoke up, each one of his words betraying a gripping feeling of exhaustion and nearing blood loss.
"Ama..." finally left the woman's mouth, before her eyes set upon the nightmarish wound running across his chest. "Jesus Christ, Ama! A-are you okay?!"
"Don't say His name in vain and I'll be fine..." the vigilante muttered, trying to clear out the tense mood, but seeing as neither of them let out even the faintest chuckle, it clearly failed less than any of their attempts at fight Estrella. Which meant it was a better chance than any to just get to the gist of it. Amadeo suddenly grabbed Carla by her shoulders, lightly shaking her. "You connected to her mind, didn't you? What did you find?!"
The telepath remained speechless for a few seconds, struggling to form a sentence, especially under pressure this high, but finally diverted her eyes to the sides and muttered:
"You know her, don't you?.."
"...yes. We are... well... My father, is also her father. That's where our connection lies."
"First of all... I'm sorry, and second..."
Carla stopped for a few seconds, recollecting her thoughts. "Fear. She feels fear. A lot of it."
"Fear?"
Amadeo offered the woman a confused wince. That's not the word he would have used to describe the thing which he had just fought by any means. Anger? Contempt? Evil? All were options, but fear? Seeing that her teammate was not getting the gist of it from just a single word, Carla continued:
"Her memories... They're all eclectic, they all feel artificial, modified by her own feelings. It's like... if you watched a movie... where some things were clearly photoshopped in, or photoshopped out... It feels like she herself doesn't believe in them - but whenever I tried delving into any of it, whenever I tried to connect with her, I'd always be thrown elsewhere..."
Artificial memories? Modificiation... That would explain things...
"Whenever she or I tried to reject or even access her memories, she'd always be reminded of Poppi, she'd always be reminded of Eleanor... All of her memories of them are... horrid, but... she can't resist them. Those memories, they incite fear, and... it drowns out everything and..."
"Who's Poppi? Who's Eleanor?"
"Do I look like I know, you half-brained, girl-looking maggot!"
"Okay, okay, I get it... No need for the harsh language, thank you, I got enough of that growing up."
"Yeah, sorry, I just... had to go through a lot of memories there and... it felt horrid. She doesn't see herself as herself, she doesn't even know her name and... That's what I said I'm sorry for you..."
Amadeo pulled himself off his knee, staring to the smoking ruins of an industrial complex in the distance. No Estrella showed up just yet... perhaps she left instead of chasing after them, as odd as that would be for her. Though, he was just as surprised at still standing straight even after losing so much blood. "Understood."
"Her memories of you... they exist, but they're scrambled and messed up. Much of them have been scrubbed off. She knows you exist, but she doesn't see you as a brother. And since it incites fear in her just to think about it, I'm sure that fear translates to hatred..."
As Amadeo offered Carla merely a faint glance, the telepath continued to ramble on, burrowing through the memories she had collected in her brief journey into the woman's mind, struggling for her breath with each sentence. "There's more of such scrambled memories where it came from. Many of them feel like... they had faces copied and pasted all over, characters in memories looking more like paper cut-outs plastered over the real people who were supposedly there. That's where... I started passing out from it all happening at once, but there were some people who went through these forced changes more than others. Feminine faces..."
Well, if I'm not going to be passing out anytime soon, then... Amadeo sat down and rested his back on an another bridge pillar.
"What feminine faces? If they were getting scrubbed off and switched around by whoever did this to Estrella... then they've got to be the key to what happened."
"Well..."
(3856 words)
