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Bunkerkampf (Mortuus Orbis Part Two)	By : Sparrow & InBrightestDay Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > Crossovers Views: 1830 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the franchises, characters, or anything else from the settings in this collection. These include Street Fighter, Marvel, Sailor Moon, Kill La Kill, and others. I made no money from this work.

Chapter List
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“All right, Miss Kiryuin,” April said, “are you ready for your closeup?”
“What?” Satsuki said, shooting the reporter a dubious look.
“...It’s a joke,” the reporter said. “Sunset Boulevard, you know?”
Satsuki’s glare didn’t flicker.
“Nevermind,” April sighed. She was so used to doing pieces to camera nowadays that she felt nervous and fidgety without one. Still, a good reporter had to make do with what she had access to, and here that meant the notepad and pen. It might actually have made the interview easier, at least at the moment.
April was sat next to Satsuki’s hospital bed, the teen having retired there as the evening wound down. April felt a little bad for keeping the girl up any longer than she had to be when she was clearly still sick, but Satsuki hadn’t yet voiced a complaint. She wasn’t doing much else for the moment, so she had granted April’s request to ask some questions.
As the redhead explained it, she was writing a chronicle of sorts, an account of all that had happened here that she could show others when they got back home. Satsuki had cynically commented that it was the very height of optimism for April to assume they could get back home. April responded that, if that was the case, then it could serve as a record for their use in future.
A chill had gone down her spine as she had spoken, a memory surfacing unbidden of something she had once read, the work of a monk in Ireland chronicling the Black Death. How the monk, knowing the end was coming, had written that he left extra parchment in case anyone else survived to add to his chronicle. And then, the next line, in different handwriting.
“Here it seems the author died.”
Would that be their future? she wondered for a moment. If something else, like the black thing, should find its way in and slaughter them all, would somebody new, seeking shelter from the nightmares outside, come along and find what they had left behind?
Then she remembered there was a more pressing point to this investigation, and forged ahead.
“Let’s get started with the basics. Your name is Satsuki Kiryuin, you’re Japanese and you’re eighteen years old, right?”
“More or less,” Satsuki said. “I was born in Japan, but my family is Japanese, American, and some French.”
She seemed irked at April’s curious expression.
“What? Do you know many six-foot tall, blue-eyed Japanese girls?” She sniffed. “Could have been worse, could have inherited mother’s albinism.”
“Let’s move on,” April said quickly, making a mental note to steer clear of any more questions about the girl’s family.
Satsuki nodded. April tapped her pen against the pad for a moment, trying to think about how to reach the questions she wanted to ask without seeming too obvious.
“Okay, so… let’s start at the beginning. What were you doing when you, well, got here, and what did you do after that?”
“I was at Honnouji,” the girl began, and then added “It’s a special academy and city-state in my world. It was some time ago, but you may have heard Ash mention that I serve as Student Council President there. You’re giving me a strange look, perhaps it means something different where you’re from. It means that in Honnouji my word is law, every commandment I give is treated like divine writ, and I am revered as the supreme authority.”
This explains a lot, thought April, but instead she said lightly “Oh great, a teenage despot.”
“I prefer Benevolent Dictator,” Satsuki said, with no indication she was at all annoyed at April’s flippancy, and continued without missing a beat.
“Things had been shaken up recently—a new transfer student with a kamui, a sailor suit like mine, was causing some trouble—and I was set to talk to my immediate subordinates, the Elite Four, about some measures I’d been considering to hopefully resolve the problem and bring the transfer student into line. I was the first to arrive in the meeting room and they were all on their way when I suddenly found myself here. I ran into the sort of problems you would expect here, including the walking dead outside, and after dealing with a few of them heard gunfire. I followed the sound, which led me to Ash and Isabeau. I made to assume command of the group, but Ash disagreed, which unfortunately became the theme of our relationship.” April nodded, jotting it all down.
“And was Doctor Báthory among those two?” she asked. Satsuki shook her head.
“No, we found her later. We were making our way through the city, but night was falling and we needed somewhere to sleep. We chose a small, reasonably defensible building, which by a remarkable stroke of luck turned out to be the one atop the entrance to this shelter. When we entered, we found Erzsebet already inside. She let us know about the entrance to the bunker.” April nodded, writing it down.
Her “chronicle” was real enough, but it was a side benefit. This was what she was really after. She’d already interviewed Kyle Reese, and he’d let her know that the first people to arrive had been Satsuki and Isabeau, as well as the late Eliza Cohen. Kyle, along with the deceased Carol Marcus and Natalia Romanova, had been brought here later. Isabeau would be an excellent source of information, but given their past interactions, April suspected that she wasn’t going to be in a sharing mood.
That made Satsuki her prime source of information on the good Doctor Báthory.
“So what do you know about the doctor?” She asked. Satsuki tilted her head.
“Won’t you be profiling Erzsebet as well?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” April replied, nodding. She had anticipated this question, and was ready for it.
“Sometimes it’s good to have different perspectives when you’re writing a piece like this. People can forget things, or simply leave out little details, and when you ask people to evaluate themselves, you can get a… different result than if you ask someone else. Sometimes people really talk themselves up and sometimes they’re really hard on themselves, so it can help to have somebody else’s input.”
Satsuki thought about it for a moment, and then nodded.
“Very well,” she said. “I’m not sure how much I can really tell you. Erzebet is a doctor, obviously. She’s quiet, and undeniably eccentric, but also very intelligent and knowledgeable, and she has a strong sense of discipline.” April nodded again as she wrote it down.
“And what about where she’s from… or when she’s from?” April smiled at her own words, dealing with people from different points in time was one of the strange things they were all getting used to by now.
Satsuki frowned.
“It’s strange, but now you mention it I don’t believe she’s ever talked about where she’s from. Or when. I think she’s Germ— no, wait, I think she’s Hungarian.”
“You don’t remember?”
“It was something Isabeau told me. I speak several different languages, but she speaks far more, and the name is apparently Hungarian. It was because of something she said about Erzsebet having her notebooks in German from studying abroad. Isabeau mentioned that things like that happen sometimes, and I can confirm it to an extent. Learning to speak several languages can have strange effects.”
“Yeah, I bet it can,” April said, and moved on. She asked a few more questions about the doctor, before moving on to asking about Isabeau and Ash, but that was more for appearances than anything else. Satsuki and Isabeau both seemed to like the doc, and if they talked with her, April didn’t want them getting her suspicious.
Especially if April’s suspicions panned out.
People in this bunker had shared where and when they’d come from. It was a pretty basic thing, talking about home, and she could remember just about everyone doing it. The fact that the doctor hadn’t was very strange.
And she apparently writes all her notes in German. If that’s where she’s from, but she won’t say…
April wanted to chide herself for thinking it. It was just about the worst, most insulting assumption you could make about someone from Germany. Maybe it really was just the result of learning several languages. Maybe April was, in her own way, being as xenophobic as Isabeau. She almost hoped she was. But she had to learn more.
Because if that nasty little thought of hers was right, they had a very serious problem on their hands.
****
The next morning, they were all assembled in the common room once more. As Johnny scanned the room, the inhabitants of the bunker all looked to him like they were dealing with the night before with varying degrees of success.
At the front of the room, Satsuki still looked ill, though admittedly somewhat better than she had last night, maybe feeling a bit less feverish. April and Mary Jane, or Spinneret, appeared to have slept just fine, while something was definitely up with Chun-Li and Kyle. The British woman, Isabeau, seemed tense, but then for all Johnny knew that was just how she was.
For his part, Johnny had been better. Who knew that drinking until it was difficult to walk would have unpleasant effects the morning after?
Oh yeah, that’s right. He did.
“Doing alright today, rockerboy?” Copperhead said from beside him, a wry grin on her face.
“Been better,” he said, “but I’ve also been worse.” He frowned at her. “You don’t look like you’re feeling last night at all.”
She shrugged.
“Part of my skill-set,” she said. “I'm immune to practically every toxin known to man. And a few that aren't. Alchohol is one of them.” That grin of hers was infectious, and Johnny couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
"Lemme guess, biotech liver upgrade?"
"Something like that."
"We have them in my world. Cost you a-" he was interrupted by Satsuki clearing her throat.
“All right,” Satsuki said, drawing their attention back to her, “we have some matters to attend to today. First and foremost, we still have a missing person.” At that, Johnny saw her nod very subtly to Isabeau. “To that end, we will be prioritizing exploration of the lower levels of the bunker, where she may have become lost. I will need to stay in medical, but the rest of you will break into teams and sweep the floor below in detail. Kyle, you accompany Isabeau. April, you and Spinneret will work together. Chun-Li, I don’t want anyone searching without a partner, so for the moment I’m assigning you to help us move some supplies on this floor. Erzsebet will remain in medical.”
“What about us?” Johnny asked, gesturing between Copperhead and him.
“We have one more job that needs to be done,” she said. “It may seem like a strange request, but it is important nonetheless. Yesterday it was discovered that the large storeroom on Level One contains a large amount of foodstuffs. We need a full inventory performed.”
“On what, canned soup?” Copperhead asked, somewhat dubious.
“And whatever else is there, yes,” Satsuki said. “One of you will take note of what the storeroom contains, while the other will stand guard. We believe Level One is safe, but threats have made their way into the bunker before, and I don’t want to take any chances. I understand how different this is from what you did in your own worlds, but the job is, as stated, important.”
“Okay,” Johnny said. “Didn’t figure you for someone who cared that much about inventory, though.”
“In my experience,” she said, “both at Honnouji Academy and with the Conglomerate, I’ve discovered that seemingly small details can be very important. Now, unless anyone has any questions...” As it turned out, the only question was what they would write with, and April was able to provide them with that. After that, the group made its way to the elevator, forced to take several trips due to how many of them there were.
“What do you think she meant about ‘the Conglomerate’?” Copperhead asked Johnny as they waited for their turn.
“It’s her company,” April answered, prompting both to look at her. “I’m doing profiles on everyone here. Satsuki’s family owns a major corporation back in her world: the Kiryuin Conglomerate. They own that school she’s president of, as well as most clothing manufacturing on the planet. I think it’s like 80 percent or something. Satsuki’s mother is the CEO, but the company will pass to her some day.”
“So we got a corporate princess with a sword here?” Copperhead asked. “I don’t think this is crazier than Gotham, but the fact that it’s anywhere close is saying something.” The elevator doors opened, and April and Spinneret made their way into it.
“This company,” Johnny said, “this ‘Kiryuin Conglomerate’, what kind of pull does it have?” April nodded.
“A lot,” she said. “From what Satsuki said, the company’s got influence with multiple governments, and it owns that special academy she came from. Apparently, in that school, her word is law.”
"Explains a lot," said Johnny, nodding slowly, and April snickered as though at some private joke, waving to him as the doors closed.
As they waited for the elevator to come back up, Copperhead and he shared a wary look.
They went about their job, having been given the simple directions needed to find the large storeroom. Johnny hadn’t really pulled Solo duty himself, but he’d seen Rogue working the bodyguard angle a couple of times, so he knew it was best never to let the client out of sight. To that end, he stayed by the storeroom door, but he did so on the inside, moving periodically to keep Copperhead in view. For her part, she moved pretty methodically among the rows of massive crates, and even climbed up one of the massive shelving units to check what was up top. Johnny almost laughed watching it, and she shrugged when she dropped back down to the floor.
“Getting bored that fast?” he asked.
“God yeah,” she replied, stretching. “I'm not made for the slow life.”
“Well, on the bright side, if the whole Solo thing falls through, you could have a promising career at an omni-market.” Copperhead laughed.
“Yeah, this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing I expected to be doing when I got on that plane to Gotham, but then again I didn’t expect to be getting ordered around by a teenager inside a bunker in a city full of zombies.”
“About her... It not bother you that we’re taking orders from, as you put it, a corporate princess?” The blonde paused in her work, looking back at Johnny.
“It’s weird, but not that weird. Why?” He shook his head.
“I don’t like it. Remember what I told you about the corpos back home the other night, about how they own pretty much everything?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you think that started? Businesses just got bigger and bigger and pushed into more and more things they shouldn’t, like some kind of fucking cancer. Before you knew it, nobody could tell them no.”
“Mm,” Copperhead said. “I know the people you’re talking about. Back in my world it’s LexCorp, but it’s the same shit. Enough money going around and when they want something, they pretty much just get it.”
“They tend to be family-run back where I'm from too.” Johnny said. "The chimpira who kidnapped Alt, he was part of the Arasaka family. Third son of a brother's second cousin twice removed, kind of thing."
“Oh yeah, sounds like the Waynes,” Copperhead said, scoffing. “Big, family-owned corporation in Gotham, only member still around is practically the prince of the city, just like his daddy. Trust me, they’re pretty good at passing that silver spoon down the line.”
“And this girl here’s got the keys to the kingdom. You heard what April said about that school, the school her family’s corporation owns? Her word is law. Between that and the Il Duce vibe she’s giving off in general, she feels like the second coming of Kei Arasaka, and believe me, that is not a good thing.” Copperhead watched him for a while, thinking.
“Alright,” she said, “so she might be bad news. What do we do about it?”
“Don’t know yet,” Johnny said after a moment. “Maybe I’m wrong about her, but if I’m not, this whole situation is going to get even more complicated than it is now.”
****
Isabeau was working very hard to stay composed.
Kyle and she had just emerged from the gymnasium, having found the room empty, and were now making their way farther in. Given the progress the other teams were making, it wouldn’t take long for the sweep of this floor to be completed and for them to move on to the next one.
The fact that they hadn’t found Makoto was upsetting enough, but what was worse was that she had already made these rounds. The night before, Isabeau had ventured down to Level One on her own, repeating the searches of the library and the storeroom, and then making her way through the gym, the supply closets and just about every room on the level. She had wanted to go down farther, but had held herself back. She didn’t know what lurked below them, and going alone could prove fatal if there were some new horror on Level Two.
The fact that there was no sign of the girl was getting to her, though. It was terrible to think about, but even finding a body would have been its own twisted form of relief at this point. If they could just find her, no matter what had happened, then they could... they could do something for her. Isabeau hated the thought of Makoto being dead, but somehow worse was the thought of her simply being left to lie down here in the cold tunnels. Far better that she should be with friends, given the respect a young woman like her deserved and…
Isabeau shook her head, sighing in frustration. She couldn’t continue to think like this. For a moment, she envied the younger members of their little band. They talked to each other all the time, sharing their feelings when they wished, without a care in the world for what was proper to share and what needed to be kept inside.
She couldn’t do that, though.
“You ok?” Kyle asked from his position beside her. It was an unfortunate test of her resolve, but one she ultimately rose to.
“Fine,” she bit out. “Keep moving.” The pair kept making their way down the long hall, eventually opening the nearest door.
Inside, Kyle turned on the lights to reveal a full-scale cafeteria or mess hall, the vast space filled with tables lined with small chairs. Along the far wall was a serving area, with an opening that led, one must presume, into a larger kitchen.
“Damn,” Kyle said, smiling a little as he looked around the room. “Well, I guess we have a silver lining. After this is all over, eating in here ought to be a hell of a lot better than eating in the common room.” Isabeau sighed in frustration.
“Is this really what you’re thinking of even now?”
“Sorry,” he said. “Bad time for a joke.”
“Indeed,” Isabeau said. “Mister Reese, I understand that you are not a soldier, not really, but you must understand that when we are on task a certain level of professionalism is called for.” Kyle stiffened a bit, frowning, and took a few steps toward her.
“I might not have been trained by King Arthur or whoever like you were,” he said, “but I’ve got enough experience fighting beside my friends and being shot at that I think I count. What the hell is going on with you? You weren’t like this two weeks ago. Even since Chun-Li got here…” Isabeau had intended to say something else, or perhaps not to say anything at all, but the last part of his statement took prominence.
“I might ask the same of you,” she said. “What precisely is ‘going on’ between Miss Xiang and you?”
Kyle hesitated for a moment, and then just shrugged and answered bluntly.
“We like each other, alright? And yes, I mean that exactly the way you think I do. Why is that such a problem for you?”
“Relationships of that... sort, are immoral.”
“Because we're not married, or because she’s Chinese and I’m not? I know you’re from farther back than we are but I still don’t get why that’s a problem.”
“I understand you don’t, Mister Reese, and this is not your fault. From what I have heard, in the world you come from, society no longer exists, at least not in any functional manner. As such, it is no surprise that you are blind to some of its nuances.” Kyle regarded her levelly for a moment. When he spoke, it was in a calm tone, but Isabeau could hear the steel in his voice.
“Is this really our priority right now?” he said. “Look, maybe I’m not a soldier the way you are, but I know war, and I know how bad it is when the enemy is more coordinated than you. Where I’m from, if your team starts coming apart, you’re all dead. The machines don’t fight; they don’t argue, and the second you start falling apart, they’ll pick you off. What’s up there...” he gestured to the ceiling, and to the city above, “...isn’t Skynet, but whatever it is it works the same way. The zombies, the dogs and the demons? They don’t fight with each other; they’re all focused on killing us, and if we can’t work as a team we’re all dead.
"That’s what I’m seeing here. You’re a trained soldier from some ‘civilized’ time, but right now you’re causing some serious problems and making it harder for all of us to work together. This shit’s gotta stop, so whatever problem you have with Chun-Li, me or the two of us together, we’ve got to sort this out, because if we don’t, then the whole lot of us could end up dead.”
For a moment, Isabeau was speechless. The fact that this young man would have the unmitigated gall to chastise her in such a manner… She'd killed men for less than this.
“Mister Reese,” she said, working hard to keep her voice level, “you will pardon me for saying so, but I have been on battlefields longer than anyone in this bunker has been alive, so do not presume to lecture me on war. Know that I speak from a position of experience, more experience than you will ever have, when I state that we have a long way to go before we could ever hope to call ourselves an team. Considering what we have faced, and how many of us have perished,” her voice cracked for a moment, “when we next suffer a loss, it will not be because of me. I understand that you see me as a threat to your relationship with Miss Xiang, but I will not permit you to place blame for the fallen on me.”
It looked as though Kyle wanted to say more, but he kept his mouth shut, shook his head slightly, and turned away, bringing an end to the conversation. Isabeau would have appreciated an apology, but given the circumstances, she supposed ending this exchange was the best she could hope for.
“Let’s just keep looking,” he said, and the two of them left the room to continue their search.
***
Unfortunately, while they kept looking for a time, there was nothing, and no one, to find. As before, there was the simultaneous sense of relief and worry.
Eventually, Isabeau and Kyle found themselves in the cafeteria again. The shadow of their last conversation still hung over them, so neither particularly felt like talking. Isabeau was left with her thoughts. Unfortunately, those were hardly soothing, and she only found herself feeling worse as the time passed.
The room itself actually made things worse. It wasn’t so much the concrete and hard surfaces. They might have seemed unpleasant to others, and were admittedly a far cry from the more elegant spaces she’d inhabited over the centuries, but they reminded her a little of her father's draughty quarters in York Castle. In a strange way, the hard, grey walls and floors were almost nostalgic.
No, these damnable electric lights were the problem. They weren’t like the kind she remembered from back home; these shed light, but no warmth, and beyond that she was beginning to suspect they were interfering with her ability to sleep properly. Normally she would wake early in the morning, the end of her first sleep, and spend an hour or so exploring the Bunker, training, or perhaps just calming her mind and thoughts, before returning to bed for her second sleep so as to wake along with the others. Now, however, they were beginning to merge, without the hour or so in between, and it was making her tired and irritable.
Was this how all the others did it, simply going to bed in the evening and sleeping right through until morning? No wonder they all seemed so lazy.
Further thoughts were interrupted by the door to the room opening, and she tensed, noticing Kyle doing the same in her peripheral vision. When Chun-Li entered the room, the young man relaxed, but Isabeau didn’t.
“Hey,” he said with a slight wave. “You done up there?”
“Not completely,” she said, “just taking a break for a while.” She smiled a little, though to Isabeau it looked forced. Isabeau wished they would go somewhere else. It had been a week apart, but she had already had words with both of them about this relationship; she hardly wanted to watch it.
“Why don’t you sit down for a bit?” Kyle asked. Chun-Li smiled again, a little more genuinely now, and nodded.
Evidently the universe wished to try Isabeau D’Argyll’s patience.
Chun-Li walked over and took a seat in the chair across from Kyle’s. Sliding forward, she looked over at Isabeau, evidently thinking for a moment, and then reached across the table and took Kyle’s hand in hers. Isabeau sighed, but said nothing.
“You get any sleep last night?” Kyle asked gently, and Chun-Li looked down at the table.
“A little,” she replied, and Isabeau noticed the bags under her eyes; the worn look on her face. “Thank you for…” she looked over at Isabeau, and then back at Kyle. “Thank you for everything.” Kyle didn’t say anything else, but reached up and squeezed one of her shoulders.
Perhaps, at another time, Isabeau might have felt a sense of camaraderie with the other woman, but right now that wasn’t happening. She felt stretched painfully thin. She wasn’t sleeping the way she should, for one thing. For another, somewhere in this bunker, somewhere alone down in the tunnels… She hated the fact that they were just sitting here when they could keep searching, and the longer they waited the worse she felt.
And now she was going to have to watch these two together, flouting the rules of polite society as though they didn’t even matter.
“I think I shall take my leave for the moment,” she said, pushing her chair back and standing up. The bonds of her self-restraint were dangerously near the breaking point.
“Okay,” Kyle said, and Isabeau nodded curtly. Turning away from the… from the pair of them, she took a few steps toward the door.
“Kind of glad she’s leaving,” Chun-Li said behind her, her voice low enough that she obviously thought Isabeau couldn’t hear it. “After last night I really can’t put up with any more of her stuck-up racist bullshit.” Isabeau stopped in her tracks.
That did it.
It was like a fuse had been lit in her chest, all the bonds of chivalry, of propriety, of self-restraint, all combusting in an instant to fuel a desperate, white-hot rage.
Whirling around, she closed the distance to Chun-Li too fast for the other woman to do more than turn around. She managed to turn just in time for the heel of Isabeau’s hand to collide with her chin, the sheer force of the uppercut lifting her out of her seat and throwing her across the table and into Kyle.
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Bunkerkampf (Mortuus Orbis Part Two)