Commands

A tanned skinned lady with messy black hair with bangs, that was also sort of tied into a ponytail. Light brown eyes, she was a dear friend of Juice and dressed strangely like the gunslinger. She always had a white hat on and, even though she didn’t use smaller guns, had a leather strap on her torso and a white hoodie tied to her waist. And with some kind of arm cannon or rifle strapped to her back.

Her captain, Limbo, wore the thick white uniform, and like Killerkill, his sleeves were pulled back, showing his pale forearms. His long hair was a clear, dry blue. Almost like it was frozen. His nails were painted a faded blue, to match his eyes, eyebrows, and lipstick.

— What else didn’t you like? — Limbo asked.

— That’s not it. — Teacher spoke. — I liked everything about him. Not saying that he was perfect. It’s like… uhm… eating your favorite food or something. Like a greasy hamburger. You know it’s not perfect in terms of food, but you love every moment.

The two of them walked along a long bookshelf. True rubble flew in the distance.

— You’re comparing your ex-boyfriend to a hamburger?

— You know what a mean… Juice is a great person. Everyone in his group is.

— Killergirl is charming, I’ll give you that.

— So why do this? What’s so wrong with the Lapse? With everyone?

They jump unto another bookshelf, towards the rubble. Chunks of stone and steel that did not belong in this place. Vaults could be seen in the midst.

— Oh, Teacher you should have seen my speech. Me and Killergirl were the center of attentions. I tried telling everyone, but I don’t think I got throught.

Behind him, Teacher frowned.

— Wouldn’t we understand? We are your closest allies.

— I don’t want to burden any of you with unnecessary thoughts.

— I still remember what you did for Meatball and Useless. They would be dead without you. You can’t be all bad… right?

Limbo chuckled, like a kind old grandma. After that, Epicenter stepped out of her portal, into the same area as the other two. The woman looked around in search of her captain, as that was the intent, she opened the portal with. To encounter Limbo.

— Captain!

Teacher and Limbo watch Epicenter approach them.

— Nice timing, my dear friend. How is the battle out there?

— I gave a peek outside and Despise seems to be doing well against everyone.

— Good for him. Part of me thought he would have died.

— Useless is well, herself. And Slots and Meatball are also fine.

— They will get it done soon then.

Epicenter sees the floating ruins that did not belong to her giant bookstore.

— Are those the relics you wanted?

— Yes, I finally found them. Your VSS could definitely use direction signs.

— What do you even want from them? — Epicenter continued.

— It might take a while to go through all of them. In the meantime, why don’t you and Teacher go help the rest of the crew. You might all make it back before my surprise!

Teacher was silent, gritting her teeth with frustration. There so many dimensions of things getting in her way, she didn’t know what else to say. Limbo was stubborn and selfish, and also her captain, and also the most accomplished Searcher of all time. Who could stand against him? Who could have a word of their own against him? Certainly not Teacher. Certainly not alone.

She had pieced together a valuable theory with what Limbo had to say, and that just made her more worried than before. Limbo sought the relics collected by all Searchers in the past. Now, most Relics where extremely situational in function and therefore they were particularly worthless.

One of them that was a source of jokes around the Lapse was a tree branch with many blue flowers. This Relic could turn frogs into short and sentient goblin men who in turn sought Relics in their own. It was one of these creatures that Franchise and Evangelist encountered once, during a stroll on Depth 5. Right before their encounter with the Anti-Human known as Green.

But Teacher was smarter then to just ignore the idea that Limbo sought one of these relics for some malicious purpose. He was too smart to call a Relic worthless, regardless of use or condition. Much like other Searchers, Teacher had chosen the Lapse as her home, and had nothing to herself on the outside. She and Limbo had a few things in common. And it was that sentiment that stopped her from betraying her captain. Regardless of what he said or did, there must be a good conclusion to this. Limbo was the greatest after all.

— Everything okay, Teacher?

— Yeah, I spaced out… Let’s go.

Epicenter crosses the portal, and Teacher gives one last look back. Once again, she felt like a mistake was made. Once again, she did not stand up against her captain. Alone, Limbo makes his way to the stolen relics.

Useless kept spouting verse after verse. She could dish out up to twenty punches in the time she skipped before retreating. Now she wasn’t doing much, but Franchise and Ragnarok started feeling their torsos ache. From their perspective, the shifting in places and timing was too trippy to accompany. The swordsman would see the freakish girl run in his direction and the next instance as if he had spaced out, would see her retreat, her attack already went through.

The one thing Ragnarok and Franchise could count on was their own experience. Useless might be powerful, but it would not take a genius tactic to take her down. Both of them were analyzing her movements since the beginning of the fight. It would take them a preemptive strike to take her down. And that’s exactly what happened. In the next chance Useless had, she moved towards Ragnarok.

Franchise then swiped his hand, cutting what he envisioned. And from a distance, right as time was about to skip forward, Useless had lost both of her legs. With that diagonal angle, Ragnarok was kept safe, but just like the watchful Killerkill simply saw the young girl collapse and scream. Blood spurts in every direction.

— Target neutralized. — Franchise spoke.

— Wait Franchise!! — Killerkill spoke.

Utilizing the words spoke by her opponents, Useless went back in time, as allowed her superb VSS. Her enemies uttered just the right amount of “ammo” to return to the time before the loss of her limbs. The three of them are shocked, aware of the fact that they returned to a previous state.

Killerkill had realized her error. But in order to make up for it, she made a new one.

— We can’t speak!

As Ragnarok was attacked by another time skip, Franchise looked back at Killerkill. The wrath and disappointment in his eyes was immeasurable. “Why didn’t you tell us, in the first place?!”, Killerkill understood it with just a quick glance. Had the two fighters known about the girl’s abilities, they would have acted accordingly.

It became clear to all three that Killerkill was faltering, for reasons only she knew. Her VSS, her all-seeing eyes, had already told her about Useless’ “Word-based Time Warping” in all its aspects. And she had already realized the way in which they could defeat her. But Killerkill had placed herself in a dead end.

After seeing how Franchise wanted to proceed, she was stuck thinking about how could defeat Useless without killing her. After all, this girl, just a little older than Imperium, was following orders. And the more Killerkill looked at her, the more she understood her. Now at a point, where she could destroy her enemy, she had also cared for her. Clenching her fists in anger, the Captain watches, powerlessly, as Franchise and Ragnarok continue to fight.