Facing Death, not my first time (1/3)

The name of the stripped woman had jumped right to the forefront of my mind. I had never seen her before, nor did I have any idea what the hell a 'tiger' was. I haven't even been to Siberia before.

How did I know her name?

This woman who didn't seem like she was even slightly afraid of the blasts sent her way, was moving at speeds I could barely follow.

I had no idea who she was, and yet there was something extremely familiar about her. It happened with the four flying people as well.

It felt like a dream, where I was trying to remember an important memory, at the tip of my tongue, yet forever out of reach, the memory muddied and forgotten.

The green-coloured man came flying by, his speed was vast, and in his wake, a few of the vehicles crashed around the place that seemed to float with him before being launched at incredible speeds towards the Siberian.

They all fell right on top of her, the ground shaking beneath the tons of weight that had clashed.

Right behind him, the blue man glowed with an aura of ethereal power, before commanding a large beam of light to strike exactly where the woman was, having been pinned down by the vehicles.

The world turned white for a few seconds, and I had to blink some tears away, when my vision returned back to me there was nothing left of the pile of cars and trucks and the surroundings had turned into a smoking crater.

The Siberian stood in the middle of it, completely undamaged from the attacks. In fact, she seemed to stare back at the four flying heroes with a mocking smile, before lightly patting her shoulder, as if to get rid of invisible dust.

Forget it, now was not the time for that. I couldn't allow myself to be distracted, I needed to find a way to defeat the stripped woman.

But how, what could I possibly do? I did not have the necessary strength to enter this match.

Then how could I intervene, think Storm, think!

It hurts to say it, even more, to think in the privacy of my own head. But there is nothing I can do right now. The stripped naked lady showed how she can easily tank tons of damage and who knows how strong energy blasts.

An Anti-Material shot is capable of piercing almost anything, but someone who withstood that? Unlikely.

No, my best shot at actually making a difference and helping these heroes lay elsewhere. Perhaps something that has been missed in the conflict, someone who is instrumental but is being held back? Like Noro who was preoccupied with Crimson, another strong fighter could possibly be busy dealing with other nuisances.

There is also a chance that I can find a weapon strong enough to actually damage her, but I wasn't gonna hold my breath for that option. The heroes seemed to have incredibly powerful weapons which boggled my mind, but I doubted it they had those things lying around to be found.

Hell, whatever equipment they were using for flight would be incredible in mission scenarios, especially ones that could fly so silently. Never mind one who could increase the user's strength or some that allowed for blasts of pure energy.

With that, I turned away from the fighting but kept in mind how far away I was from it. It wouldn't do to be so focused on searching for something to the point of losing track of the conflict I was hoping to help.

I had a goal, find something, anything that would allow for a chance. A chance that would permit the heroes to strike down on the Siberian.

Nothing, the search gave only fruits of failure and disappointment. All the while the battle around me grew more and more frantic.

I could see, how the heroes were having a hard time keeping up with the stripped woman. While she wasn't fast enough to keep up with the green and blue guys, she had almost struck the dark-haired woman.

The flying woman didn't seem to have any large-distance attacks, which was weird since the other three had their respective projectile weapons.

Was she not qualified to have one? No, she was probably a specialist in close quarters, until now I hadn't seen anything to suggest that the other three were as strong as her in the physical department.

On the other hand, I witnessed her grab an entire semi-truck before striking at the stripped lady. Who was noted as affected by the momentum of the attack but still didn't have any injuries following the impact?

Letting out a curse, this time out loud, as once again, I managed to find absolutely nothing within the building you were searching.

No signs of a person, nor of a fight happening, or any type of weapon that could change the tides of battle.

Time was running Storm, and so were my thoughts.

And that's when I noticed.

On the side, this entire time while they were fighting, the Siberian had not been shy about destroying the entire battleground. Allowing herself to plow through buildings, cutting through walls and cement like it was thin wet paper to bring them down on the heroes. Hell, a larger part of this search was simply evading her destructive path, which took most of my time.

But there was a small building that hadn't been affected by the conflict occurring. It was a small run-down thing, that probably has not seen much use for years now, but compared to the destruction around it, it was practically spotless.

Why?

Was the Siberian consciously making sure to not target that area? She was even making sure that any attacks going off were directed toward her and away from it.

She didn't want people near there for whatever reason.

My feet begin to move forward. Because perhaps I finally found the solution for how to save the Heroes.

Entering the building, I was immediately struck by a sense of obscurity, it looked like it was a technological market, with various communication devices that seemed much more advanced than the radios I was used to.

None of them looked useable in combat situations, however, being so thin that they might break at the slightest stress. I already lost my fair share of radios over the years and they were not cheap, so I learned early on to keep that thing somewhere where it won't break.

Perhaps returning here after this is over to search for a good radio, or at least this world's communicators was a good idea, but for now, there is something else I need to do.

A voice, I slow my steps as I reach a door leading to the back of the store.

"My Bella, dear Bella. It failed, it shouldn't have, but don't worry. Daddy is gonna make sure you don't get hurt anymore." It was an older voice, however quite difficult to discern from the sobs and hiccups which strained as the voice kept on mumbling.

Positioning myself against the door, my pistol already out and ready to shoot, an ear close by the door, and continued to hear the mournings of the man.

"Look, look! Daddy may have fucked up once, but look at you now! How strong you are, no one can hurt you dear. Oh Bella my beautiful baby girl, no one will ever hurt you again as long as I live." He continued to ramble on again, but it became harder, his mutterings becoming so small I couldn't hear him anymore.

It didn't matter, I heard enough. The Siberian, or Bella as this man was calling her, was given the ability to be invulnerable to attacks by him. So obviously he would know how to undo the weapon giving her such an ability.

There was no need to hesitate, I already heard enough that this man was the reason why Bella became the Siberian, and that information was sufficient.

I still have no idea how the Siberian was invulnerable, however from his own words the man probably had some device that allowed him to keep his daughter safe, if I manage to kill him and break said device it would most likely disable the field which made the Siberian unable to take damage.

I stealthily open the door, all my time being hidden amongst the shadows quickly allowing me to slip inside without alerting the crying man.

It was a backroom, with many tables and a lot of boxes presumably holding back up communicators, and the stocks for this small building.

Why the hell are there full-on metal containers in here? I thought this was a communication store, why would they need such sturdy receptacles for their merchandise?

Questions for later.

Finally, I found my target, or at least his legs, the rest of his body being hidden from my vision, behind a pillar that held up the ceiling.

Visual confirmation, I could now hear more of the man's mumbles, actually become coherent.

"Kill them Bella, the false heroes who want to stop you, kill them all." Yeah, I wasn't gonna allow this to fly, not here and not now. It was obvious that he was somehow communicating with the Siberian, maybe using one of the sophisticated radios from this very store.

I had no idea how they functioned, nor did I have any jammer to stop the communications, so I decided to go with the fastest method.

Extreme, raw violence.

I turn on one of the corners, silently making my way up the store containers, sneaking to the top of them for a better serving point, before finally, my target becomes visible.

He was a middle-aged man, who clearly didn't care about his body. With a big pudge for a stomach, and a bald head with little care for his few strands of hair.

(Picture Here)

Visible confirmation of target, commencing kill. Painting the pistol towards him, with his head down to the floor and tears flooding his eyes, it was unlikely that he would have been able to see me.

I pull the trigger, and the bullet goes flying out of its chamber.

Suddenly a strange force, pushed my hand up, something impacting my gun and sending it flying from my hand.

My instincts scream, sharpened by war I can barely hear the sound of air being cut. The same sound that accompanies me when my blade takes lives, and I fall on the top of the container, flattening myself against it.

The sound of a blade cutting through steel screeches in the small building. I notice markings appearing on the wall behind me as if someone had cut into it with a long knife.

The old man was not the only one here anymore, there was someone else.

He was younger, about twentyish, tall and slender, he was also wearing a tight-fitting white shirt that showed off his muscular upper body, his arms seemed more developed than his chest and core.

With pale blue eyes which were looking at me with mirth, and a hair that seemed to unnaturally hold itself back, the man was holding a small army knife in his left hand.

(Picture here)

Was he able to cut from such large distances? Another device created from this world? A knife that could project its edge over long distances would be incredible, not only for its large range and invisible strike but also for crowd cleaning and cutting away at overgrown foliage while marching through forested areas.

No, once again I was getting distracted, letting my thoughts rumble on. I needed to stay focused.

While the younger man was the obvious bigger danger, the old man was now staring at the both of us in clear surprise, thought his gaze remained mostly on the young man next to him.

"Y-you are-, the leader-!" He was rudely cut off by the smirking young man.

"And you are incredibly hard to track down Doctor Manton. I came in here because news got around that the brilliant genius was holding this city hostage with a deadly gas bomb." The way his words seemed to come out flowing from his mouth, in such a smooth way was terrifying.

I met people like this man before, hell the last old man I met before dying was exactly like this, someone who loved the sound of their own voice.

The knife man, however, was much more dangerous, not only because of his deadly weapon but from his eyes I felt a sense of madness only seen in soldiers broken by war.

This man was a horrifying monster.

I jumped back, using the large metal container to hide my form, it was obvious that the man couldn't cut through it since the projected blade wasn't able to cut deeply into cement. This would buy me some time.

"So after hearing the news, my friends and I just couldn't help ourselves from joining in on the fun. Imagine my surprise when I see a naked lady fighting the entire Founders. You know anything about that, Doctor?" He already knew the answer, somehow from the way he was talking, it implied that he already knew that Manton was the source of Siberian invulnerability.

I allowed him to keep on talking, taking a glance towards where my pistol had fallen but discarded the idea, it was too far away and he would probably be fast enough to cut me down before I could shoot him.

PP-90 it is then.

"Jack Slash, what do you want with me?" Doctor Manton sounded much less confident than what he probably was going for.

"Many things Doctor, however let's talk later, there's still a dog who here that needs to be put down!"

Careful, this dog might just take your neck.