Chapter Text
Everyone walked into the strange girl's “house”, which looked nothing like a conventional house. It was, instead, an immense tower in the middle of the desert.
“Jabber, I swear, if you took your mask off again…” Enjin said, looking over to the other cleaner, who was, in fact, not wearing his mask.
“No, it's okay! Amo loves to see his face. Amo loves when she can see new faces. Don't you think it's disrespectful covering up when you're here to talk with Amo?” the young girl spoke, and everyone turned around to see each other, questioning if anybody else would do it. Slowly, they started taking off each fullface, and the girl smiled with excitement seeing everyone around her.
“So handsome~ So pretty~ So…” She turned to face Jabber. “...Unique~”
“Let's get down to business already” Enjin complained, and looked at Rudo to indicate him to step forward and talk to her.
“We want to know more about the person who can go between the sphere and-”
“My turn!” She interrupted. “What kind of person do you like? Amo likes people who have a strong smell~”
Everyone in the team looked at her, confused and taken aback by her sudden change in subject, as if she was completely ignoring them.
“I like people who can beat my ass to a pulp” Jabber said with a dreamy smile.
“That's awesome! Do you have someone special?” Amo asked, and Enjin stopped Jabber before they continued.
“Is this cheesy sleepover-talk the price we have to pay for the intel?” The leader of team Akuta spoke, and the girl looked at him in disbelief.
“Price… Price… So that's it… You're just using Amo” She murmured to herself.
“How could you say that… How could you say that… How could you say that?!” She became progressively more furious at the idea that they only saw her as a mean to get information. She actually thought they were there to be friends.
“I see… So that'll be it… Could you help me, my beautiful knight in shining armor?”
“We should get out of here, before-” Enjin turned to look at Gris, and stopped right in his tracks with horror in his face, seeing five sharp blades sticking out of his ribs.
“Sorry to break this to ya’ but… I think he's already dead” Jabber spoke in a monotonous, terrifyingly calm tone.
“Jabber…?” Enjin called him softly, in disbelief. He was so shocked that he didn't see the next attack coming his way. Jabber only got to scratch him, but it was a matter of time before the venom got to him, and none of them even knew what kind of venom he was using.
Jabber got in front of Amo, and the girl grabbed his arm with arrogance, caressing it in a conceited manner. The cleaner was looking at everyone else with an expression they'd never seen before, only Enjin, who now laid on the floor with his eyes open but vacant.
“I'll protect her… You mess with her, you mess with me!” He threatened.
“Jabber, what has gotten into you? You'd never hurt your friends” Tamsy spoke, seemingly trying to talk some sense into him.
“Oh, don't you know~? He's always been a fan of Amo!” She spoke in a conceited tone, and everyone gasped.
“Jabber? No… There's no way” Rudo said.
“Oh~? Oh, my~ It seems… There's another fan of Amo here!”
“ That's enough. I'll get this done already…” Riyo said, and walked towards Amo with her vital instrument in hand. If she had to kill Jabber to get the rest of them to safety, she would.
“Wait, Riyo! We don't know how her powers work yet! It's too dangerous!” Follo tried to stop her. Tomme was sitting on the ground, giving first aid to both Gris and Enjin. If only Eisha was here, she was the best at dealing with Jabber's poison. They saw Riyo stop, and turn around with a deathly look in her eyes.
“Seems you really can't trust anyone…” She said, and was about to grab something from her bag, when someone stopped her.
“Careful!!” Tamsy screamed, and Riyo ducked to dodge Jabber's claws.
“What?! What is that?! He's got another vital instrument?!” Rudo questioned. Jabber had a new, bigger set of claws, with his name written on them.
“We're done for” Tamsy said. He had known Jabber for a long time, and knew about his “serious mode”. He was unstoppable.
Jabber went for Rudo this time, and Tamsy jumped in to save the kid just in time.
“We must move quickly, or he'll destroy the whole place, and us with it”
“No, it can't be… Why… I was on the ground…” he heard Rudo mumbling, and looked at him with concern.
“Oh, no, she got you…”
Both Tamsy and Delmon looked around, and realized they were surrounded by Amo's “fans”.
“It seems like she's showing them something…”
“Don't be stupid! Amo doesn't show them anything! Amo can only make smells. Smells of happy times with the people they love!”
Tamsy and Delmon looked at eacher other, and calmly pulled out their masks.
“Oh, no. Amo talked too much.”
“So we just have to avoid smelling it and we're safe… Makes sense you were so insistent with us taking off our masks.”
“You're all so dumb! Stupid, stupid!” Amo screamed, like a child throwing a tantrum. So Tamsy looked around once again. Everyone else but Delmon were under her spell, ready to risk their lives to defend her.
“I'll keep you safe, mama… Don't you worry…” He heard Jabber whisper.
He took his hand out of the long sleeves of his coat, holding his precious wooden distaff.
“Vital instrument, Tokushin”
They all jumped to attack Tamsy at the same time. He was outnumbered, but not overpowered.
“Net.”
The rest of the cleaners and the black-haired supporter were quickly tangled in a net of thick blue ropes. Tamsy did make sure to tie Jabber's hands in a way he couldn't use his claws to cut through and escape.
“He's in pain and not making any sexual comments, nor moaning… He's really gone” Tamsy joked while watching them struggle, trying to break loose of his ropes.
“I advise you not to move too much. The more you do, the tighter they will get” He said, noticing a couple drops of blood hit the floor, the friction starting to break skin. He sighed to pretend to be worried about them, but he hoped this would feed the darkness inside of Rudo.
He spun the thread into a roll, trapping everyone inside. They seemed to be calmer after realizing there was nothing they could do, their bodies completely immobilized inside the mass of ropes.
“And we've captured the psycho lady”
Amo was hanging upside-down, with every extremity of her body tied and spread by Tamsy's ability.
“Now turn everyone back to normal”
“You're hurting me… You're so mean… Mean, mean, mean… You're hurting me!!” She screamed, and everyone trapped inside the spool of thread became aggressive once more, triggered by the urge to protect her.
Blood started dripping once more, visible against the light blue. They would die before they could get out, but they also didn't care.
“You leave me no choice…’
“Tamsy, what are you gonna do?” Delmon questioned him.
“I'm just going to free them” He said casually.
“I never wanted to use my vital object on my friends… But you leave no choice. So, please, resist this!”
(...)
Jabber opened his eyes, and the first thing he felt was a sharp pain going straight through his abdomen. He felt confused; just a few moments ago he was fighting, defending his mom, now he was on the floor, bleeding.
“Shit, what happened…?” He asked himself, and attempted to pull his body away from the piece of metal sticking out of his torso. It hurt more when he moved.
It hurts so good. But that doesn't matter right now.
“Ma…? Mama?” He looked around, but could only see his teammates, also hurt and bleeding. He wished he could help them with his poison, but they weren't as resistant to it as him.
He gently pricked himself with one of his claws, releasing just enough poison to numb himself. After that, he lifted his head to see Tamsy walking up to him.
“What happened?”
“That crazy woman used her powers to make you remember past times with your loved ones. You and the other's turned on us, and started fighting and defending her” He explained.
“I see…” Jabber sighed, and looked down at his claws as they turned back into rings. That meant he wouldn't get to see her again.