Chapter 3

The Invincible Juggernaut

A bitingly cold wind cut through the mountains, weaving around the monstrous peaks before rushing into the valley below accompanied by flurries of icy sleet. A young girl in a sleeveless hoodie looked up at the sky—the transformation from black to grey heralding the approach of dawn—seemingly unperturbed by the constant bombardment of freezing rain.

*a-choo*

She turned to the duo behind her, focusing on the boy in the heavy blue parka who had made the offending noise.

"Fuck it's cold out here. Damn 20 C wind chill factor."

The girl standing next to him huddled closer to the lee side of the rock they were hiding behind, hugging her matching parka closer to herself.

"Oh c-come on. You'll w-warm right up once we g-get started, don't see what you're c-c-complaining about."

The boy tched. "Whatever, 'Overwatch'. You won't even be fighting, that's up to me and 'Juggernaut'." He turned to the person in question. "When do we start?"

"We just got aerial thermography of the building. Looks like twelve signatures; five are clustered in the southwest room, the rest are scattered outside and on the second floor. Overwatch?"

The dark-haired girl's eyes flared open as she stared into the rock face in front of them. "Yeah, that's where they're keeping her—three hundred meters NEbN. Target's AIM field is stable, can assume no serious injuries." The air around her teemed with a prickling, half-felt energy that only ESPers could perceive, a crawling itch that dissipated suddenly as she closed her eyes, leaning against the boulder and breathing deeply. "Finally caught up to them. Good thing too, I think I'm reaching my limit."

The boy nodded in agreement. While the prototype ATV lent to them by The City was comfortable enough, sixteen hours was enough to tire anyone—especially if they had to use their ability constantly to course-correct.

Juggernaut placed a hand as a foothold for the boy, lifting his weight easily onto the rock above. "Reach, southwest corner." She barely had time to see his grin as an invisible force grabbed her, flinging her hundreds of feet into the air. Flattening her arms against her side to make herself more aerodynamic, she adjusted a small targeter looped around her ear. "2 meters to the left." Her rapid ascent slowed to a hover as the invisible force complied, nudging her to the east. The advanced communications devices embedded in their ears needed no manual activation, using jaw movements to pick up even soundless statements.

"Chou."

At the codeword, she felt the same force holding her now rip her from the sky. Her unnatural acceleration pushed her past terminal velocity in a matter of seconds, her speed increasing at a frantic pace as the top of the cabin rushed up in a-

*Kra-THOOM*

She hit the roof at close to one hundred m/s, smashing through it and the second level before impacting the ground below, sending a small shockwave of dust and splinters from the crater she had just created.

To say the men in the room were surprised would be an understatement, to put it mildly. "I am become death, destroyer of mercs, chou."

As their attentions—and guns—turned toward her, she rushed down the nearest hostile, her fist thudding into his chest with a sickening crack, spinning him around as he fell to the floor, unmoving. An explosion of gunfire sounded to her right; she burst forward, bullets impacting her side as the next man went down, his throat crushed by a psychically-enhanced elbow strike. Turning, she tackled an AK-wielding adversary, dispatching him with a quick blow to the face, leaving it mangled beyond recognition.

*Tok*

The girl known as Juggernaut turned to see the last man holding a knife against her back, straining to push it and pierce her heart from behind. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"You've got some balls, chou. I'm impressed."

She spun suddenly, flattening her fist into a spear-hand strike as she thrust into his heart, cleaving his flesh and bursting through the other side, blood pumping around her arm and pooling around her as he died, mouth open in shock. She pulled her arm out, letting the body fall to the ground, a few weak spurts of blood coming from the gaping hole in its chest.

A noise came from the corner of the room; turning, she found the target huddled under a chair, staring out at her, eyes wide with terror. "It's okay kid, I took care of these guys. They won't be bothering you anymore, chou." She reached her hand out, only to have the child shy away, a whimper of fear escaping her lips.

Juggernaut realized belatedly that her arm was still coated in a slick layer of blood. Oh, right. Probably not the best first impression. "Alright, just stay here. There's probably a few more mercs to catch anyways, chou." Walking to the door, she tapped her earpiece to get her team's attention. "Reach, my area is clear, target is secure."

"Got it. I cleared out the building, and Overwatch is on the bore rifle checking for runaways."

*THOOM*

*THOOM*

"Looks like two of them made it out of my range. Well, that's all of th-"

*THOOM*

"...make that three. We're clear."

"Next time count your bogeys, Reach. If one of them had gone for the target it would have been sloppy, chou. Send Overwatch in to collect the girl...and bring the ATV up here so we can get out of here without her freezing to death."

Looking back over her shoulder, Juggernaut noted that water had begun streaming in through the hole she had created entering the building, spattering onto the floor and slowly beginning to fill the room. She walked over and let the water spill over her bloodied appendage, her eyes seeing a past not so far behind her...

She is standing under a crackling sky, one that is naturally occurring (the opposite occurring more often than it should in this city of scientific miracles). Moisture explodes downwards in a torrent, the raindrops bursting on her form as she turns her face towards the heavens—she had always enjoyed this type of weather.

She has a moment of confusion as she feels...not nothing, she can tell that the rain is there, but it has lost its power, the fury of the storm a pittance to her newfound abilities.

A trivial thing to find complaint in, given how her life might have turned out, but she can't help but feel a certain sense of saudade for the things she will never be able to experience again...

A shuffle from behind, and Juggernaut turned abruptly, her ingrained tactics putting her in between the mission objective and any possible threat.

The girl in the blue parka looked taken aback from the sudden movement, but composed herself quickly enough.

"Uh...um, I'm here to pick up the girl." Glancing about the room, she gave the barest of grimaces at the carnage that used to be a group of kidnappers. Shrugging off the heavy rifle slung over her shoulder, she handed it over to her teammate, wordlessly moving around her towards the girl.

Juggernaut watched wordlessly as Overwatch comforted the girl easily, helping her to her feet and leading her towards the entrance. She looked down again at her arm. Easy enough for people not to label you a killer when the blood isn't literally on your hands.

She followed them outside, a slight engine noise heralding the arrival of the sleek Academy City ATV. Though it looked like something out of a science-fiction novel, the girl barely gave it a second glance before climbing inside, grateful for the warmth and escape from what must have been a terrifying experience.

The casual acceptance of ludicrous technology was the secondary side-effect of growing up in The City. Those who had lived there most of their life would balk at the dated devices of the outside world, though someone deciding to move there might find it odd to have experimental AI running in concert with conventional technology.

This contraption was no exception. Though it had an electric stove, water heater, and mini-fridge, the navigation system was the newest AI developed by one of the teams dedicated to transportation advancements. As such, there was no control station—just a fold out keyboard that wasn't currently in use. Putting one foot inside the vehicle, Juggernaut rapped on the metal.

"Give me the sterilization device, chou."

A whirring sound could be heard for a few seconds, wherein she noticed Overwatch feeding the girl some soup as she got her settled into one of the chairs.

*Click* Voice pattern recognized, receive device from right of egress.

As stated, a small panel opened next to the doorway, from which Juggernaut picked up a head-sized rectangular object. Pressing a series of buttons, she turned to the side and tossed the device into the cabin where it thudded to a stop ~5m past the entrance. A visible light spread out in a cone as she headed into the ATV and took her seat.

"Close door." The AI responded promptly. "Begin navigation, chou."

Designation Juggernaut, state your destination.

The girl in the now orange-red hoodie looked back at their mission objective—now reclined back as the chair transitioned into a bed—then back at her hand, clenching it into a fist.

"Home...Academy City. ASAP."

Destination received. ETA 9 hours 37 minutes 41 seconds. Time at Academy City will be 23:22:08 JST (UTC+09:00). Immediately, the ATV engines roared to life, spurring itself towards The City.

Reclining back into her chair, Juggernaut closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep—the muted vibrations from their craft lost on her.

[End Chapter]