NT Rangers - Lad 19 - Defend Drianna (Patreon)

Lad stepped in. He could feel the tension building already and there was also a strange aura around Yeong that felt like something a bit more complicated than simply being an intent to kill, or a desire to fight. When he looked at her, it seemed more like fear and trauma, but what could that stem from, he wondered.
“Guys! She's not bad. I think that she can be reasoned with, no matter what she is. I'm here and she hasn't tried to kill me, so that must tell you something.”

“Idiot.” Drianna pushed him out of her way and stepped towards Yeong. She grinned.
“Who are you trying to protect? I'm gonna enjoy fucking up these Rangers permanently...” She cocked her head and saw the fear in Yeong's eyes.
“Ho... I wonder what's gotten into her.”

“Y-you...” Yeong shook.

“Me? Don't think we've met bef-” Drianna's vision went blurry.
'The hell is happening?' The picture in front of her was turning sideways, then upside down.

'Am I... Falling?' She landed on her back and felt incredibly disoriented.

Yeong stared down at her with a mad expression. “I've been thinking about this for so long... You have no idea. You're the reason I got stronger...” She remarked

“Huh?” Drianna tried to move her arm but it felt like no matter how she intended to move her limbs would move in the opposite direction, like her 'controls' were inverted.

'The hell is this girl talking about... I didn't even do anything yet.' She became frustrated and tried to figure it out quickly, but Yeong was standing over her ready to beat her while she was defenseless.

'Bullshit! This Ranger is such bullshit! I need to figure this out.' Her determination drove her to find a rhythm in her mismatched controls. She tried lifting herself up off her back. It took an extreme amount of effort as the true effect of having all of ones muscles or tendons reacting in foreign ways could not be understated. In fact, Yeong seemed terrified by the mere fact that Drianna could still move.

'There! That's the expression I wanna see!' She grinned giddily, only to her he quickly pounded into a small crater in the cement by two successive punches. For the first time since she was experimented on Drianna felt her skeleton crack.

'Oh... Oh shit. I'm gonna die.' She realized as Lad put himself between her and Yeong.

Yeong stopped her punch. “Get out of the way!” The girl screamed.

“She's down!” Lad claimed.
“Look at her!”

'Seriously? I'm down? Stupid...' Drianna did not believe it. She did not feel pain like she had heard it explained to her by researchers and other things that were not like her. She had barely ever even been hurt. So, when she lifted her arm and saw it bent, then felt the difficulty breathing with something poking at her lungs from the inside she understood.

'If I was Human... Would this hurt?' She did not like being defeated and she did not understand pain, but she felt the oddity of being unable to move her body the way she wanted to. With that, a sort of pain washed over her.

'Huh... I'm Dead. But what's this idiot doing? Is it because he's Echo?' She wondered.

“She's not dead yet... I need to finish it. She- She could still hurt us. She could still hurt me again.” Yeong explained.

“You're not making sense...” Lad hugged Yeong tightly as she raised her fists. Despite her strength, he successfully bound her arms to her side by the embrace.
“I'm sorry for what happened to you. But remember, She is not the one that did it to you. Everyone is different in this time.” Lad explained gently into her ear.

“Everyone is... Except-” She gritted her teeth. In her mind she could still feel the sensation of being a mind within a body that she could not fully control. Forced to act. Every second of every hour regulated for the service of a master. Through everything she still had nightmares about that time and somehow returning back to it.
“Except me.”

“What are you talking about?” Lad let her go so he could lean back and look into her eyes.
“You're a bad-ass. If everyone else can be different then why can't you? Just let yourself be someone new here.”

“You're different, too.” Yeong claimed, hugging Lad back tightly. The others had come to surround Drianna. The rest of the world came back into focus. He looked back and saw Drianna laying in a crater with black blood leaking from cracks in her skin all over her body.

Kai knelt down, performing scans. “It's a Core Beast. Lad, you really want to save this?”

“She talked to me like a person. I can't just treat her like a monster because of what a scan says when I've experienced the fact that she's a person for myself.”

Joseph looked at Lad inquisitively. “Why would she simply talk to you instead of capturing you, anyway. You are not exactly 'strong' are you? She could have taken you from us.”

He gulped. “She could have...” He refined his story in his head.
“She did, but my trait let me talk to her and I was able to stall for time.”

“I see.” Joseph nodded. It was believable.

“How touching!” A voice echoes through the basement.
“I see my Daughter experienced a bit of a hiccup. That was not much of a fight so let me help!” Slowly Drianna's body began to move. Even she looked shocked and scared as her broken form leapt up on it's own.

“Threads! She's a puppet?” Kai asked.

“That's it.” Yeong stated, pulling Lad out of the way.
“Joseph, cut them?”

“Fire does not work. Cutting does not work. It's Dryder Silk but it's also enhanced.”

“Watch the egg in the corner.” Lad warned.

“Egg? Ugh...” Kai groaned.
“Things are getting complicated.”

Dri shook as her body moved into a fighting position. “This... Is this... Pain?” She had not felt it before but as her body was forced to move she felt parts scraping that were never supposed to. Her system came to life and screamed at those pieces of her for moving, but she could not listen/

“Dammit!” Yeong grimaced. She was no longer scared, but was instead wondering how to proceed.

“My daughter's shattered body can still deal some damage to you lot. I suppose you will have to destroy her.” The voice cackled.

“Some mother...” Kai muttered.

Dri's eyes widened. “You... Tel...ling... Me...”

Lad was pushed out of the way as Dri lunged towards Yeong. Yeong blocked the punch only to be sent back through the wall. Through the communicator they could hear her comment.
“She wasn't kidding! This girl's still dangerous! If I didn't have my suit I'd be in worse shape than her!”

“The suit...” Lad repeated.

“What?” Kai looked at him, readying her personal drone as Dri ignored them and dove through the hole after Yeong.

“If I give her my suit wont it be able to counteract the threads and even save her life? I can take it off and if we can slap it on her wrist she'll be okay!”

Kai pinched the bridge of her nose. “That's crazy. This girl's our enemy. If we did that she could just as easily use it against us.”

“She could... But she wont.” Lad promised.

“How can you be so sure?” Joseph chimed in.

“Because I got a good feeling.”

He rolled his eyes at Lad. Kai shook her head and added. “You're the only person in the world that could say something that stupid and have it work on us. Damn trait.”

Lad began to tear up. He smiled bashfully at the two of them as he took his suit off, drawing it back into the wristband.

'My trait isn't enough to make someone do something they don't want to do. The fact that they agree means they believe in me.'

“Little help! I- Lad I don't wanna hurt her anymore but I need a way to deal with this or I'm going to get overwhelmed.”

Lad blushed deeply and rushed through the hole. “Coming!”

“N-no offense but I meant someone that can do something about this chick!” Yeong shouted. Lad saw her dodge another punch, then bounce around her to the back only to take a kick that sent her careening towards Lad. She looked back and held out her arms to stop herself on the narrow walls, scraping deep gashes as she ceased her momentum.
“Fuck!”

“I said I'm on it.” Lad whispered.

“Where's your suit!” She snapped at him.

“Charge at her and hide me in your shadow.” Lad explained.
“I'll make it work, just run into her and I'll make it work.”

“If you don't make it work she's gonna put an arm through my stomach.”

“Trust me.”

Yeong sighed. “Alright.”

The plan was set in motion. Yeong ran forward while Lad hung on to her back collar, getting pulled along. As she stopped suddenly from running into Dri, Lad endured the forced pummeling his weak body and swung around. He saw Dri's arm reel back to strike just as promised.

'Just as planned.' He thought, slapping the band onto it. He clicked the button. His white suit surrounded her body, binding the broken bones into place with sickening cracks. She screamed at first, but slowly began to look relieved as painkillers shot into her system. She stared down at the suit covering her, then looked at Lad, the one who had placed it on her. The threads detached from her, one after another. The voice laughed loudly.

“Oh! Thank you. It seems you've decided to help us after all!” Lad cringed as he heard a cracking in the other room.
“And what is this? A charming little ranger out of their suit? I think it's time, don't you?”

Drianna looked up with disdain for where the voice was coming from. As everyone was wondering what was happening Kai shouted through the communicator on Lad's and Yeong's suit.
“Ha- It hatched! It ignored us and is headed for you guys!”

“Fuck!” Yeong turned to see a lightning fast spawn of the Dryder lung for the unprotected Lad.

The Spawn's voidlike mouth opened wide and tendrils sucked Lad's legs inside. He felt something sting his spine and immediately he lost control of his upper body while also feel a strange connection to the lower half. His legs ached and burned.

'What- What's happening? Is this it for me?' He felt his consciousness being guided by something ancient and strange, but just before it could take hold it was torn away along with the Spawn. He looked back to See Drianna tearing it apart with a wide, crazy grin plastered across her face. She tore it's maw in half, ripped out it's tendrils and then either broke, kicked, bent or pulled each of it's limbs off until it was just a twitching mass. She shouted up at the ceiling.
“How's that, Mother! Just like the old days, right!? Killed your last fucking spawn just like I killed and ate all the others!” She breathed in deeply and contently, then stared down at you.
“Seriously, what kind of idiot are you?”

“Ungrateful child...” The woman's voice cooed sadly.
“My last chance to have a 'real' daughter... How cruel.”

Drian seemed to be speaking at a vibrating cobweb in the corner. “Yeah yeah. Why don't you cry about it to your Hero. I'm not your doll anymore.” As she said that her legs gave out from beneath her and she coughed up black blood as she landed hard on her back. Lad moved to her side.
“Oh... I'm pretty... Fucked up still.”

Kai approached. “The suit is the only thing holding her body together.”

“We have to save her!” Lad demanded. The others looked skeptical, but then he added.
“She saved me. You saw it!” With that it seemed solved.

“I guess there's nothing we can do. He's right.” Yeong sighed.
“I'm the leader and I say we do whatever we can.”

-

“She's on life support?” Lad asked Lacie. Drianna was on a bed within a heavy duty cell. They could see her through plate glass, something that could survive the same bomb that destroyed all of Demonkine.

“That's a way of putting it, dear. Our people don't exactly know how to treat something like her so be patient, okay?” Through the glass she was being attended by metal arms used by doctors to perform surgery long range. Even if he convinced the team, the company had to be cautious. She crossed her arms and stared into the room. The scientist in her seemed intrigued.
“We've been scraping any data Fennek's been willing to give us on Core Beast anatomy, but the fact that we're asking questions is starting to prompt them to ask questions. Things we can't exactly answer right now.” She exhaled through her nose sharply.

“Fennek? The weapons Corp?”

“The one and the same. We've known for a while that they've had an interest in experimenting on Core Beasts.”

“Drianna... She said that she was experimented on. It sounded cruel.”

“If you say 'cruel' that certainly sounds like them.” She paused and then added in a tone so casual that he almost did not pick up on the words being said.
“But you know, if you give one of my suits to someone outside the company again I may have to have them publish another edition of the dictionary where cruel has a new meaning and a picture of a small white haired boy next to it as an example.” He gulped, then slowly turned to see a vein in her forehead that he did not know the kind mother had. The Fox slowly calmed herself by fanning her face with her palm.
“Okay?”

“O-okay! Sorry... Never again.” He offered sincerely.

“Good.” She seemed to be shooing him away so Lad left the room. Kai and Yeong were outside waiting.

“What's up?” He asked.

Yeong shrugged. “Not much to say. The Dryder actually got away so we're left with a dead-end.”

“Not really. We have a new prisoner.” Kai remarked.
“By the way... Did you guys hear her say 'Hero?'”

Lad gulped. “Isn't it a common parlance? That could mean anything.” He felt the innate desire to cover his tracks, even if he truly did not care, nor wish to.

The girls exchanged a curious look, then collectively nodded. “Yeah, I guess.” Yeong nodded.
“Besides, there's no actual way 'that' Hero would be involved.”

“How so?”

“For one...” She blushed and a gentle smile crossed her lips.
“That Hero was the one that saved me. It wasn't easy. I wish I could remember him more clearly than I do. I can just make out the memory, not the appearance... Strange. If I think about it, I was just a pawn in some big play of his, but in the end after using me he sacrificed himself knowing that his goals were accomplished. It would've been so easy just to leave me.”

Lad felt strange. It was literally the exact opposite to his situation. “He sounds really nice.” A pang of annoyance appeared in the back of his mind, like a protest from an unwelcome occupier. His voice spoke into Lad's mind.
'Anyone can appear good if they are the victor.'

“You okay, Lad?” Kai asked, taking his hand.

Yeong took the other. “You helped me out a lot back there.”

“I was more of a hindrance.” He claimed awkwardly.

“Nope.” They both said simply. They each leaned forward, closed their eyes and took a cheek to smooch. As that happened the world retreated into a pale void. Yeong and Kai froze on either side of Lad as the Hero appeared before him.

“I am becoming tired of this game, Lad.” He sounded annoyed. He looked annoyed. He walked right up as if stepping from his domain itself.
“I offered you a place at my side... I treated you with understanding...” The Hero placed a finger under Lad's chin and tilted his terrified face up to look him in they eye.
“I thought that you would settle in to serving me obediently. I Assumed that you would see the light and the benefit of my rule.”

Lad was stunned. He could not speak until he felt the cold lips still on his cheek and the hands in his. His heart beat quickly and his eyes became misty. The programming assaulted his mind. Each world of disapproval was like a dagger stabbing at his beating heart. But... They could not pierce it. He shut his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth and opened them suddenly as he clutched their hands.
“Enough!”

The Hero flinched. Lad saw that and let out a little laugh. “I guess you're Human after all.”

“What?” The Hero stared Lad down.
“You can't speak back to me! For all I've done for you!”

“Done to me...” Lad corrected.
“You planted kind thoughts of you into my brain. Affection, love... But none of those can actually imitate the real thing, can they?” It's why you want to ruin love for others. It's why you drive others apart and hate to see them really happy. It's so that your cheap imitation will catch them off guard.”

“This is-” The hero actually took a step back.

“True? All of it?” Lad sighed deeply, his face growing cold. He glanced to his left and to his right.
“I know a little something about fake affection and love... I've felt it all my life. People want to get close to me. They want to love me and fuck me. Even if it hurts me... Especially if it hurts me. Except... These two...” He trailed off, a genuine smile crossing his lips.
“I feel like... I would never want to try for the type of fake love and adoration that you instill in those around you.”

“Stop...” The Hero frowned.

“Unless-”

“You stop speaking right now!” he demanded.

“You're actually just an incredibly SAD, small person.” As soon as Lad said that the realm itself shook with a single word.

“Enough!” The 'Hero' as he called himself, stared Lad down hatefully.
“Disgusting. Bullshit. Tripe. Idiot. I still control you.” He stepped back and motioned Lad towards him. Lad felt compelled to step forward but the hands of both Kai and Yeong were keeping him from straying too far. The Hero gritted his teeth tightly and gnashed them together. He pulled more forcefully to drive them apart.
“You are mine! You are one of MY things!”

“I am NOT!”

“Oh.” The Hero smiled and seemed to relax and cease his pulling. In the sweetest, most saccharin tone he added.
“Well... If you refuse me I will simply break you right here and now so, Choose carefully.” His eyes sharpened and narrowed.
“I am your GOD. Do you think I can not? That I wont?”

Lad stood firm, but he felt himself ready to falter as well. His hands still grasped theirs but his grip was looser than when he was being dragged.

'Is giving in to him now worse than the possibility of being destroyed.'

“That's it.” The Hero cooed, signaling to him that it was the type of thought he wanted Lad to have.