The mercenary gestured towards Mercy and all ten metallic spheres hurtled towards her.
She effortlessly dodged and danced like a ballet dancer, causing the spheres that narrowly missed to create disproportionately large dents and cracks into the floor and columns. They obliterated kiosks and concrete flower beds in their chaotic wake.
"Is she guiding these things using some kind of technology?" Mercy thought, "Perhaps those gauntlets?"
As her opponent continued to conduct the spheres trajectory, Mercy caught a red flash in her peripheral vision. She instinctively thought of a shield and it appeared on her forearm.
The sphere had shot at her and Mercy blocked it instantly, only for the force of the collision to push her back, sending her flying.
She collided into a closed food stall. The smell of salty bread and flour permeated the air.
Retroidica's finest.
"Here, eat. I saw how you protected them, even in your current state." Said Victor, he handed Mercy a slice of bread.
"Damnit," Mercy cursed under her breath, "Not now."
The new scent in the air acted like a hallucinogen as her mind briefly wafted from the present.
Mercy got back to her feet and casually emerged from the wreckage, brushing away rubble and crumbs of bread.
"That was perfectly good food…"
She deduced that they were leftovers from earlier in the day, ready to be sold at a discount the next.
"If it means that much I can char it nice and good for you, darling."
One of the spheres shot a flat piece of bread by Mercy's feet. Charred crumbs and loose concrete sprayed on to her again, but she remained fixed on the mercenary.
"Wasteful!" she thought.
This time the metallic spheres opened fire all at once while revolving around her. She quickly projected a purple dome of a three metre radius as an energy projectile grazed her right leg.
The dome began to crack under the constant barrage instantly as the sphere's revolutions dramatically increased.
The mercenary's manic laughter frantically rang over the symphony of collisions. A web of fractures steadily branched across Mercy's projected dome.
Through an advanced neural device, Mercy could conjure any item she could think of. The more complex the object however, the more difficult it was to create and maintain.
There was an unforeseen variable that Victor didn't account for during its creation, her mental state could heavily alter and stretch the limits of the ability. Therefore, the cracks that appeared on her barrier was a mirror, reflecting her internal state.
"You shouldn't have let them leave without you!" she cried with glee.
Mercy was in a precarious situation. The resilience of her energy barrier was waning, not to mention her capacity to generate objects. She was on a short time limit, though it wasn't despair she was feeling but annoyance.
"What on Earth is Victor doing and why is he in a place like this?" she thought, "Everything we've been through... I don't want to believe that aligning with these guys was your true motive. I know it wasn't!"
The barrier responded to her and held firm, and shortly after, the barrage ceased.
She saw the spheres smoke and sizzle as they glowed red hot from overuse. They had overheated, this was her chance!
She shattered her own barrier and with the shards loose, sent them straight into all ten of the orbs. They exploded in unison.
"Now tell me where the Red Paladin is." She had no time to gloat, she wanted to meet up with the others and find Victor. She observed her surroundings, they had already made a mess of the station.
Smoking bullet holes and craters littered the floor and pillars; it was a good thing no one was around to get hurt, though their cover had been blown.
There was no doubt the Paladins would be on the front of international news by tomorrow morning.
The mercenary stood in shock, but only for a second as she began to chuckle. It was apparent the change in momentum didn't phase her at all. Mercy continued.
"I don't think you understand th-"
"No its you who doesn't understand! The Red Paladin? He isn't here! You will die in vain right in this station, alone!" As she said this, chunks of the floor and walls began to rip away and levitate in the air.
Mercy took a step back, she didn't have time to reflect on her words. She couldn't decide whether she was using technology or some innate ability.
The mercenary looked smug as her hair continued to dance. She knew that using the orb lasers as a decoy would give her an opening, but she underestimated her opponent as she saw a purple blur, barrel towards her.
Mercy landed a direct punch with a fist encased in a hard, purple bubble and she spiralled through the air before collapsing into a flower bed.
"I figured you were keeping your distance, that you weren't confident in your close combat skills against me," Mercy said smugly "But it turns out I was wrong. You have none, you're just a glorified test subject."
The debris had dropped but to her surprise, the mercenary returned to her feet. Her face, a mixture of fear and rage, splattered with blood and soil.
"And the Red Paladin is here, because I have faith in my team's intelligence, and they will get him back before I'm done here-"
The mercenary wiped her bloody nose, she had lost a metallic gauntlet. It was at that moment when Mercy froze.
Her tattoo. It was a tracing of the skeletal structure in her hand with the initials 'BH' overlapping each other in the centre.
"Oh this?" she asked smugly, "so you've heard of them. They're disbanded now, but I was a member when they were at the top of their game." Mercy's body language must have given her away.
"You only startled me," the mercenary continued "don't get the wrong idea, I'd rather starve to death than exchange blows, which is why this ability is perfect."
Mercy was furious, even the phrasing got under her skin. Did she say that because of her comment about the bread stall earlier or is the tattoo real? Was genuinely a former member of Bone Hand? Did she know who Mercy was?
Famine was not just an unfortunate consequence of war in Fiana, but a means for control.
When a fungal blight ravaged Mercy's homeland, civil war broke out as the two rival factions were split on how to save the country.
One faction denied outside help, they wanted to remain an independent country. They looked to their own academics, even spiritual leaders for treatment.
The other faction consisted of technocrats and foreign aligned leaders, they saw the fungus as a national security threat and argued in favour of joining the UN, accepting global support through advanced biotech and medicines.
However, in return, advanced military bases where to be built on their land. It was seen as a rejection of Fiana's traditions and an exploitation from outside governments seeking strategic allyship.
Conspiracies of Retroidica's involvement in the fungi's creation fuelled the preservationist faction's extremist views, further enflaming the conflict.
Through the chaos a third faction emerged, though they did not seek to find a just solution. They were opportunistic gang members who profited from the suffering.
They controlled the remaining food supply, hoarding resources and trading them to those who swore loyalty.
The villages that refused? Burned to the ground. Parents were forced to choose between giving up their children as recruits or face a blazing end.
The gang was known as The Bone Hand, and they often targeted preservation aligned regions. They burned down Mercy's village, killing her family.
"It seems you may have come across us in the past, perhaps one of our victims," the mercenary sounded almost remorseful, "I was an orphan then, the leader brought me in. He was like a father and he taught me how to survive, I would've died without him. That's why we regret nothing!"
Mercy was hit with a sudden wave of nausea. She hated the Bone Hand with all of her being. She couldn't forgive them, but hearing another perspective hit her like a Retroidican train.
Bone Hand and victimhood? The notion eluded her. She held on to the naïve world view she had at fifteen, despite all her years of experience and education through the Paladin Initiative.
This, however, did not excuse their actions.
Her mind wandered to Victor again, he had found her on the brink of collapse from malnourishment.
She had previously woken up in a destroyedtemple where her and thirteen other younger children had taken refuge. They were helped by the sanctuary's monks who offered a safe havenfor orphans of war.
They had food and water and being the eldest, Mercy would make sure they'd eat first.
The monks taught them the famine was caused by a spiritual imbalance, that Fiana was slowly straying from its roots and was therefore being punished by the earth god Tellus. Mercy had once agreed, though at that moment she wanted it all to stop by whoever was able.
When food became scarce, she snuck into the ruins of the nearby villages, scavenging for anything that could be deemed edible, but by the time she returned, the sanctuary was raided.
Bone Hand had chained the children's neck and arms, while their bare feet soaked in the blood of the monks who had refused their entry. Their cries cut deep.
The farming tool weighed a ton in Mercy's raw grasp, but she tried with all her might to fight back.
"Should we take her too?" One of them said.
"No, look at the state of her. She'd die before we'd make it back." replied another, "It seems she let the kids eat in her stead, that kind of sacrifice will only get you killed in this world."
They beat her and left her to die as she laid unconsciously on the cold, sanctuary floor.
She didn't know what woke her up. Was it her late parents spurring her on or was it the fading cries of the children? Either way she slowly opened her eyes.
In her blurry vision she saw a large white creature perched atop a half destroyed column across from her. She couldn't understand what it was but it seemed to look at her curiously.
It flew down to the temple floor with grace, and it was then when Mercy understood.
The two and a half metre wingspan of Fiana's fabled bird, the Baise Peacock.
She watched it mid flight. It was an angel coming to her aid.
She remembered her mother words, she had told her about the positive symbolism of purity and rebirth tied to the rare creature, though she fully understood her own personal meaning as she lay witness to its rattling display of flowery feathers in her time of need.
Resilience.
She had to go after the children!
The stain glass windows had given the peacock's plumage a purple hue or perhaps it was a genetic mutation. As she briefly studied it, she looked down to its lower train feathers. It was dripping with deep red blood, almost black.
Its beauty was sullied. It was Bone Hands fault!
She rose to her blistered feet once again, willing herself not to slip on the blood soaked tiles and pushed herself after them.
She followed them back to their camp. Her bare feet were numb to its bruised and bloody mess as they raced towards the marquee where they were huddled. Her own speed surprised her.
She did all she could to get between the unsuspecting Bone Hand men and the children.
She spread her frail malnourished arms and refused to move. But before they could utter a word, a masked man leapt down from somewhere above the marquee, knocking out one of the Bone hand members with a solid punch.
He quickly disarmed another and sent him flying in the opposite direction.
One by one he dispatched each member in the area with incredible speed and precision. It was as though he was flying above the ground as he leapt between targets, evading trigger happy assailants at impossible angles.
When the base was cleared, Mercy had already collapsed from exhaustion and hunger, but mostly from relief. They were seemingly saved.
He would've been eighteen back then and she later found out he had been tracking down Bone hand in the country on his own.
He was also spreading biocontrol agents, predicting fungal spreads and pre-emptively containing the fungus for eradication, all while Fiana's leadership squabbled.
He was truly remarkable.
So why? Why was he working with a former Bone Hand member? Her heart was beginning to break but she knew there was something more to it.
"I just need to find him," she said. "Then it would all make sense..." As Mercy emerged from her daze, she sized her opponent.
The mercenary felt the aura around the Paladin change, as faint purple lights pulsed beneath her feet in anticipation. She took a step back.
"I don't know what kind of relation you had with us, but I don't remember you." The mercenary scoffed, "Nevertheless, its seems we're both survivors of that hell that was the Fianese Civil War."
"You survived off of your father's disregard for human life," Mercy replied sharply "I survived from my drive to protect it."
"And now you continue to over look the suffering of others by becoming a mercenary funded by a corrupt government!"
In an instant, the ground around Mercy erupted in a flash of purple, blinding light. Dozens of transparent, shimmering projections appeared:
Blades, shields, farming tools, even broken fragments of Fianese temple architecture; each flickering like they'd been pulled from half faded memories.
But instead of rushing her opponent, they hovered… then slowly circled Mercy like planets around a star.
Finally the wings and plume of a peacock's feathers appeared behind her in a grand display of shimmering purple.
The motif matched the design of her helmet as requested to Victor when she had first joined.
She was going to see him again.
The mercenary took another step back. Her eyes darted between the constructs and the unwavering woman at their centre.
"What is this?" she sneered. "A graveyard of memories?"
"No," Mercy said resolutely. "It's my sanctuary. And I'm not going to let anyone take it away from me again."
They were just for show since she didn't mean to construct them. They had no mass, similar to a hologram.
It was much less a bluff than it was a distraction, but most importantly they gave her comfort and resolve.
The mercenary raised the debris again, however this time they flew towards her body, creating a concrete armour with a letterbox like opening for her eyes. She towered over Mercy with her new towering height and mass.
"Like I said, I don't like close combat, but with armour like this I wouldn't mind a few rounds," Mercy didn't respond, "I'm not sure why Bone Hand spared you but don't worry, I'll finish you off. Isn't that just poeti-"
She was cut off by the Purple Paladin's sudden gesture. She had slowly raised her arm mimicking a gun with her hand.
"This is your final warning," Mercy cautioned, "Where is Victor?"
"Hah, Victor? That's his name? You lot are amateurs, when I'm through with you, all your iden-"
"Bang."
Purple spikes of energy irrupted all over her concrete armour, running her through in multiple locations. She stiffly keeled over but the spikes denied her fall.
Blood began to stream from her concrete armour and snake between the pale tiles of the station floor.
It was deep red. Almost black.
While Mercy challenged the nature of her character, she tunnelled small pieces of her constructs into the ground.
She gathered that her opponent would use the ground to fight once more, and intended to catch her off guard should she bring them closer. But to use them as armour... the temptation to end it all was far too overwhelming, she would get her revenge for her family, for Fiana.
"Which way did they head?" Mercy thought. She let the fight go on longer than she should have. The drama around Victor threw her off.
"Wait, you bitch!" the mercenary gurgled "My father is also a Retroid Merc and he's here right now! If he hasn't already killed the rest of you freaks-"
Mercy released her spiked constructs and she fell over, her concrete armour dispersing across the floor.
"So there's more of you," Mercy concluded "Then I guess he dies next."
Yuna kept pace with the others as they ran in silence through winding corridors. The ceiling was now flat and low and the walls curved inwards from the now deep red, floor tiles. With the four of them, paired with the uncomfortable tension in the air, it was almost claustrophobic.
Mercy should be fine Yuna thought, but if that mercenary was half as strong as the ones they'd encountered prior, she could be in serious trouble. Should she have told the group about Victor's peculiar ability? Maybe it could've helped Mercy?
Important information like that could be the difference between life and death in battle. She was angry at herself, though the same could be said about misinformation.
"Down these flights of stairs to the left." Merphie called out. They followed, but the left turn was blocked by an industrial sized, steel wall with a locked door at its centre. It looked out of place.
"I got it..." Ryu unsheathed the nagamaki on his back and in a flash of green and brown, cut two lines.
A chunk of the wall fell inwards.
It was a blur that didn't take half a second, but Yuna lay witness to the controlled movements of his blade. He brought the blade down then straight up in one swift movement and lingered in a controlled pose for a tenth of a second before returning it to its sheath.
They now stared down a dark, incomplete corridor with an exposed ceiling and a patchwork floor of tiles and concrete.
"Oh dear," Merphie announced, " It appears the captain's tracker has gotten cold..." Yuna and the others looked at him in surprise. Did something happen?
"Did he find the tracker?" Nico asked calmly.
"Most likely, but worry not, I have memorised his last coordinates, if we hurry we can get to him."
They raced down the dark hallway.
Yuna thought it would stretch on forever until they appeared onto an expansive train platform. The area was much older, it was as if they had unknowingly travelled back in time.
There were two pairs of tracks, divided by another platform in the middle. Grand pillars stretched into the curved ceiling as they stood at regular intervals. They served as seating at its base and as they widened towards the top they followed the ceilings curvature while melding into large, circular window openings.
They appeared sequentially between each pillar and looked up into the Retroidican night sky. It was now raining and the droplets drummed on the tinted, dome shaped panes with a drowsy monotony.
"Merphie?" Nico called. He was getting impatient.
"It appears we must go along the tracks into the tunnel." He gestured towards the dark void at the left end of the platform.
"You gotta be kidding me." Ryu complained.
"Afraid of the dark?" Nico taunted.
"No its just... it's gotta be filthy down there," Yuna rolled her eyes but it was hidden behind her eagle inspired Paladin helmet, "How bout I just become the Captain instead, it'll be great. Before every fight we'll say... Ryu Sentai: Peace Time Rangers!"
The silence was very loud and very intentional by the three of them as Ryu struck a rehearsed pose, Yuna thought Merphie had also caught on but he had mirrored the action inquisitively.
"That doesn't sound too bad..." A distorted voice echoed, "but whatever name you go by, it won't change your death at my hand."
The unsettling response seemed to belong to an old man, whose footsteps could now be heard above the rain as they reverberated from the tunnel.
Darkness crawled away from the mysterious mans reddish brown frame as he emerged before them. He wore a plain metallic mask with two eye openings.
Two loose bandages danced behind his head in the tunnels draught and they slapped against the handles of the two swords he carried on his back.
Below his mask he was clad in a weathered, gun metal combat suit but wore over it a rusted red, denim jacket that ended just above his knees.
The jacket was frayed and sleeveless, revealing studded shoulder pads and two bulky arm gauntlets.
From his chest plate to his boots were an assortment of straps, pouches and belts holding knives, guns and other deadly contraptions.
If the first woman wasn't a mercenary, he certainly was. He showed no fear as he walked towards the group after leaping on to the platform.
"You don't look like a train operator..." Ryu deduced, "If your lost I can guide you to the nearest exit."
"I'm right where I need to be," Yuna could hear the smokers growl through the distorted voice filter, "and you guys won't be going anywhere."
Something heavy pushed down on Yuna. She tried to turn her head to look at the others but it proved difficult.
"What is this?" she asked through clenched teeth, but the others were just as confused as they also couldn't move. She looked back to the mysterious, masked man. He hadn't done anything she could see.
"Now you'll have to forgive me, I'm still getting the hang of this - I have to concentrate." He slowly reached for the gun on his hip like he didn't dare make any sudden movements.
This was bad. A regular person would be laid flat under the pressure, it was like she was squatting a van. She couldn't fight affectively like this.
"It's like he increased the gravity of the area," Yuna thought, "are they all manipulating it somehow...?"
She could now see the embedded coil accelerator in his gun as he slowly pulled it from his holster. But as he did, she saw a flash of green in the corner of her eye.
Ryu had sprung into action. He ran like an athlete towards the mercenary, leaving dents in the floor in his wake. He leaped and kicked him square in the chest.
The pressure lifted and Yuna breathed a sigh of relief.
He was slower than usual, but it must have been akin to running with four tons and a half on his back.
The mercenary was launched backwards, but he flipped and landed effortlessly on his feet.
"Like I said, I'm still getting the hang of it." He excused casually, as if he wasn't about to shoot them down one by one.
"I don't mean to do a 'Purple Paladin', but I'm best equipped to fight this guy, you guys need to hurry."
Ryu drew his weapon but Nico protested.
"I was just about to make a move when you ran at him-"
"There's no time for this. Ryu, if you're sure you've got this we should get going." Yuna couldn't help but think she sounded like Mercy but someone had to rein them in.
Merphie, Nico and Yuna proceeded to leap onto the tracks towards the tunnel, Nico muttered something under his breath.
"It's gravity!" Yuna called, "I'm not sure how, but they're manipulating it to fight!"
"I thought I told ya'll you weren't goin any-" the mercenary was cut off by Ryu's blade, it was blocked by one of his gauntlets but he slid back from the force of the attack.
"I gathered but thanks. Go ahead I've got..." they were already swallowed by the darkness.
"Oh well, I guess they already know." The mercenary pushed Ryu off with a wave of his arm. He was strong.
"Guess its just me and you kid." The mercenary conceded.
"What's your name by the way," Ryu remarked, " I don't want to keep calling you 'Mr. mercenary' in my head."