The years had been kind to Madame Marciano. Her beauty, little faded from the night an admirer nicknamed her "Black Rose", remained the talk of the Underworld. She still caught men's appreciations and women's envy, still wore fetching backless black opera gowns with plunging necklines without the slightest hint of self-consciousness, only incomparable confidence and icy beauty.

Her affectionate admirer was dead. She had him killed for betraying. Slowly. Brutally. She savored each lingering moment, each drop of agony extracted. And then her favorite (as far as she could have favorites) daughter put a bullet in his head at point blank range.

And that made her quite happy.

Madame Marciano was one of the most feared figures in the shadowy Criminal Guild of The World Within And Without. She was everything a budding villain like Oswald Friece could ever aspire to be: beautiful, cold, ruthless, rich and powerful. Her slightest word made men or broke them into irrecoverable little bits and pieces.

But she seethed. Oh, how she seethed.

Just one man had ever gotten the better of her. That man escaped her for the longest time by virtually dropping out of her sight. Frustrated, she was forced to redirect her efforts elsewhere. Even when she was finally free to concentrate on him, he could not be found anywhere.

But she never forgot. No. No one crossed Marciano and lived.

Now, after so much time and effort, she knew everything about him that mattered: his current location, his allies, even his real name. She had him within her grasp and power. And she had never forgotten his name. It was the dagger buried in her back that she allowed to stay in place as a hateful, necessary reminder. It was the bitter toxin she fed herself every day in order to become stronger, to become immune to it, to him.

She regarded her assembled Daughters over a glass of expensive red wine with deadly disinterest. Her cold gaze dwelt upon their leader. "April."

"Yes, Mother?"

"Find this 'Mayship'. Find its captain. Bring him back to me alive."

"Yes, Mother."

Her Daughters departed without a sound. They would return with him in shackles, or they would not come back at all. It did not matter. They could be replaced. All of them were expendable.

Regardless of the outcome, she would not be stopped by anything.

Marciano swished her wineglass. She remembered that he liked wine and wooed her over such one torrid night. The memory of that moment of weakness scorched itself into her mind.

But soon she would be rid of him.

She was not weak. No longer. Never again.

And once she destroyed him, she would at last be completely free of his taint, of him and his lingering, maddening effect on her.

She hissed his name out aloud as curse and challenge and spite combined. One of the last few times she would be forced to invoke him.

"Johnny…"

The World Within And Without

Disclaimer: Sheo Darren does not own Guilty Gear or any of the games, anime, movies, books and the like that are the property of other people. All original characters in this story are his creations and property. All insert characters are copyright/ owned by their respective represented real-life entities.

Featured Anime: Coyote Ragtime Show

Calendar Arc

Episode Three

Counterattack

"Johnny…"

April turned to February"Hack into their surveillance systems, February. See if you can find where Johnny is."

The battlefield analysis cyborg's braids bobbed once alongside her head. A green glow bathed her feet as she touched her palm to the floor.

"We'll split up into three teams," April told the rest. "Oct, Nov and Diesse: capture the Mayship's bridge and its crew. February will go with you."

The triplets loudly cheered.

"Do not damage the bridge or kill any of the crew unless needed," April elaborated for the overenthusiastic kindergarteners.

"Yes, April!" They skipped in place, very cute and energetic.

"Sept, take March, May and June. Capture the engine room intact."

"Roger," the soft-spoken meido sniper responded. Her companions responded in their own ways: March's brief nod, a quick smirk from May and June's expressionless agreement.

"January, July, August. You're with me. We will locate Johnny and capture him. Mother wants him alive," April stressed for January's express benefit, "So do not shoot unless I tell you to."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you…"

Her eldest sister's grumbling concerned her some. January was the first of Marciano's Daughters. Years of wear and tear had substantially degraded her first generation cybernetic matrix. Jan lost her temper all too easily, often went berserk at the slightest provocation and had accuracy that matched her temper. That is, she wouldn't hit the ground if it weren't for gravity.

But the Mayship boasted a formidable fighting complement. April needed the combat power January provided. And January, for all her faults, was a frontline by herself.

Her other sisters were similarly formidable. All of them were cyborgs, superhumanly fast and strong and tough, superior to the older mechanical bodies employed by Section Two and the Bougainvillea Brigade.

The Twelve Daughters were Madame Marcianos' elite executors, the tip of the spear and the cutting edge of cybernetic assassination technology. They had yet to fail a mission. April did not plan to begin now.

Johnny. Her target's name angered her. Here was the man who had the temerity to defy Madame Marciano and lived to tell the tale, the man who had caused her mother so much trouble.

I hope Mother leaves enough of you for me…

"April?" That was May asking. "I know we're going to capture Johnny alive, but what about the others? I mean the rest of the crew?"

"If they resist, kill them. And if they don't," and April's grin was vicious, "We'll save on bullets by making them jump off their ship."

John asked the expected rhetorical question: "Is everyone all right?"

"More or less," Akari answered after briefly looking everyone up.

"What's happening?" Jack asked as April helped him up.

"Isn't it obvious?" May almost spat from where she sat– which happened to be a moaning Bridget's back. "We're under attack!"

"May… you're heavy…"

Akari noticed that John held his left arm rather tenderly. "John! You're hurt!"

"I got thrown into a bulkhead during the crash…"

"Let me look at it." She carefully cut open his coat's sleeve with one of her swords. The sight made her wince. "Your arm is badly bruised. I'll put a cold compress on it to reduce the swelling. Get me some ice," she ordered Augus.

"On it, Akari!"

Akari pulled out a bright blue scarf from the inside of her tux's right sleeve. "You won't be able to use your iajitsu stance with just one arm," she told John, "So you'll have to sit this one out."

"Take over for me, then, Akari."

"I hear." They glanced at May. "Any issues with that?" Akari asked almost challengingly.

"Nope." The senior Jellyfish girl had to smile. "You look like you have everything in hand. 'Sides, I'm out of shape for this business."

"You call throwing a giant pink whale at me 'out of shape'?" Akari demanded.

"You deflected it, didn't you?"

"Humility? From May?" Her best friend's sudden personality change astounded April, as it did everyone else who knew the hitherto bratty girl. "Maybe Bridget did get you pregnant…"

"Feh. Jack will get you pregnant first."

"Can we stay on subject here?" Jack huffily demanded while he and Bridget blushed.

Despite the grim situation, everyone chuckled.

"Is there anyone else who is injured?" John asked.

"Me," the squished Bridget volunteered. Everyone else reported themselves fine.

"Good to see that." John activated his Codec. "Octy? What's our status?"

"The upper hull has taken some damage. All dorsal gun turrets have been destroyed. ECS is down. Engines are all okay." The Mayship engineer could have been enumerating trivialities, she spoke so calmly. "The enemy crash-landed their aircraft on our upper deck. Enemy numbers a dozen."

"Just twelve?" May harrumphed. "Piece of cake."

"Seal the ship passages," John ordered. "Buy us some time."

"Already done. Be advised. My sensors detect cybernetic readings on all the attackers."

"Cyborgs? Twelve cyborgs? Where's Section Two, Childville, the Handsome Men or the Bougainvillea Brigade when we need them?" Jack asked the ceiling.

"It doesn't matter who they are or how many of them are there," Akari coldly told him. She finished binding John's arm. "We'll defeat every one of them."

In another time, she would have said, we'll kill them all. She left that as an unspoken, final option. John and company didn't like deaths, even enemy deaths. But if it ever came to that– Akari had killed before. She'd kill again for her new family.

"Anything else you can tell us, Octy?" John asked.

"The enemy has penetrated into the ship's outer layers. One of them is hacking into our computer systems. They've taken out every surveillance camera they've run across. Their objective is unknown so far."

"Find out what they're after if you can. Also, patch me in to Febby."

"Moving on the first, done on the second…"

"Captain John?" The blond Jellyfish sounded frightened.

"Lock up the bridge, Febby. Set the Mayship on auto pilot. Then get out of there. There are enemies approaching you."

"But we can hold out–"

"No! None of you can fight. Lock up and leave now. Just make sure we won't crash into a mountain any time soon."

"Yes, Captain!"

"Same goes for you, Octy. If the enemy gets near, pull out of the engine room."

"Understood."

"Leap, you take Janis, March and April to the escape pod. At the first sign of trouble, eject. The JSSDF will pick you up soon enough. Akari?"

The magician assassin nodded. "The rest of us will go after the enemy," Akari said. "Even if they destroy our cameras, Octy can still track them by tracing the path of the cameras they've destroyed. She can steer us to hit them from behind."

"Sounds good," May approved.

"I'm going," Jack chimed in. "I'm not going to sit on my ass here while you guys hog all the glory." Before anyone could protest, he added, "Don't worry. I'm a crack shot. It comes from growing up in the English countryside as a spoiled and bored rich kid."

"I thought you lost your shotgun somewhere in the Philippines?" May asked.

"Yeah, I did. But I did bring something else."

"This isn't a game," Akari sternly warned. "Our enemies are ruthless killer cyborgs. They won't go down easily, they will keep coming at you, and they will kill you. You will have to kill them to stop them for good. Can you?"

The Brit boy shrugged. "We'll see when the time comes."

"Jack?"

"Yeah, April?"

He'd expected her to protest like in all the movies. She did grab the front of his shirt to pull his face up to hers. Her eyes were worried but also strangely expectant and almost proud. No, not almost. She was definitely proud. Of him.

It kind of made him happy.

"Come back alive and in one piece," April finally said.

He grinned. Saluted, even. "Yes, ma'am!"

"And you?" Akari asked John.

"As my good nurse orders, I will stay out of it."

"Good. I hate to be slowed down, even if it's you."

John smiled faintly at the gruff show of concern.

Octy's unruffled voice intruded once more upon the drama-laden moment. "Captain John? I've found out the identity of their target."

"There's no one at the bridge, April," February reported.

The dark-haired beauty swore beneath her breath. "Oct, Nov, Diesse, you three search for escape pods or other similar craft."

"Okay!"

April switched frequencies. "Sept, how are you doing?"

"Slow," the sniper reported. "Heavy defenses encountered." April's heightened hearing detected the distinctive barks of Sept's M14. There was a satisfactory explosion. "Enemy sentry turret destroyed. Proceeding to engine room."

"Good. Keep an eye out for the enemy."

"Roger."

April looked about the empty dining room. January and March's firearms authoritatively covered the two entrances. Meanwhile June checked the contents of the lone plate that still bore food. Beef, April noted as she herself came over. She fingered the meat. Still-warm. They haven't gone too far.

The meal looked delicious. Full-body cybernetics deprived April of taste. Still, she was able to indulge a brief moment of quasi-hunger before anger overrode it.

Where did they go?

She stared at the immaculately white ceramic seat (Sephy was nothing if not cleanly) with disgust and anger. Disgust at resorting to this extreme measure. Anger at the people who forced her into it. Both emotions burned bright and hot, but slowly, a controlled flame. She was not going to lose her temper over this.

But she was going to unload all that violence into her opponents.

Sorry, Leap. I love your cooking. But this is a matter of life and death.

Flipping her sword so that its killing point aimed away from her, Akari heartlessly rammed its pommel into her gut.

The blow doubled her over the toilet bowl. She managed to grab the basin's smoothly curved edges before retching. Willpower fueled by hatred drove her to keep throwing up until her stomach was empty.

The food was extra weight. It would slow her down.

Accidentally breathing in the reek reminded her of harsher days on the filthy backstreets of the hellhole that was Belfast, Ireland, before Zato-sama and the assassin guild, memories acrid and bitter as the bile polluting her mouth.

A shaky hand fumbled for the flush lever. Water sluiced down the bowl's smooth insides and carried away the awful mess. Cool pine replaced the smell. Still the breath hissed out of her lungs.

"I got my rifle!" Jack announced from outside the bathroom. "Are you done, Akari?"

Gasping, on her knees in an undignified position over the toilet bowl, throat burning in pain while her mismatched eyes burned with anger, Akari swore.

You bastards are going to fucking pay for making me throw up Leap's cooking.

"April, I've found Johnny."

February's calmly-delivered news got the intended reaction. "Where is he?" April demanded.

"He's heading towards the main cargo hold."

Got you!

"Invitation has been received and accepted. Guests are moving to the party area."

"Let's greet them, shall we, Captain?"

"Of course, Akari."

April's team darted through the passage leading to their target like lightning. And there he stood in the very middle of the massive cargo room.

"Johnny!"

The man in the black hat, coat and shades smiled. April bracketed his face squarely between her Luger's gold-plated sights. "Mother wishes to see you," she told him.

"If I go with you," Johnny asked, "Will you leave my crew alone?"

April allowed a smirk to cross her face. "Of course," she lied.

"Then it's settled," Johnny decided aloud.

A girl walked out from behind him. She had dark spiky hair and the strangest eyes: one red, the other blue. She grinned at the Daughters even as the cyborgs leveled their weapons at her.

"Exit stage left," the girl sniggered.

And then she and Johnny disappeared as bullets whizzed through where they had been.

The blast doors behind the Alpha Team clanged shut. April swore. "It's a trap!"

"First batch of guests are done. May, take the second batch!"

"Roger."

John turned to the heavily-breathing Akari. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah… just… tired…" Four teleports in just fifteen minutes, each with someone tagging along, strained her. "Let me… catch my breath… first…"

"All right, then. Rest for a moment. May and the others should be able to handle this for now. Don't push yourself too hard."

"Can that last, Captain." Willpower brought her lanky frame ramrod straight. She glared at him. "We either push to the limit, or die. And I'm not good at dying."

"You won't do much good if you arrive there all tired."

Akari growled beneath her breath. "Just a minute, that's all."

"Take your time."

"Captain?" Octy was still bunkered up in Engineering– and inside her big red power suit, for extra safety. "You're near the bridge, aren't you?"

"Yes, why?"

February was rather impressed with the skill of the recently-departed bridge crew and the Mayship's engineering safeguards. The airship was mechanically locked into a hundred-mile-diameter orbit five thousand feet above sea level. Feb's hacking abilities worked on computers and electronics, not old-fashioned hydraulics.

She was physically alone. The triplets were pursuing the bridge crew. She guided everyone through secure radio connections as she hacked into the Mayship's still-resisting surveillance system.

Now she attempted to free April's team from imprisonment. It rankled February a bit that she had led her sisters into a trap. Professional pride and the thought that she had let April down...

The bridge doors clanked open. February looked over her shoulder.

Johnny smiled at her.

Even as she began to react, something roared behind her.

A hail of steel-tipped darts rang off May's makeshift iron shield. She whistled up a Mister Dolphin Upper to attack her shotgun-toting opponent, an aggressive gray-haired woman who moved with inhuman speed.

The battle was not going as smoothly as planned. May was holding her own, and Bridget was doing better than her, and Jack had drawn the enemy sniper off to a camping duel worthy of Enemy At The Gates. But July and Augus needed to double-team the last cyborg, and even so they were having trouble. And Akari was still nowhere to be found.

Come on, Akari! We need you!

A snarl ahead made her brace for battle.

May could not believe that there were "normal" humans who could wield a two-thousand-pound ship's anchor with just one hand. She's stronger than even me…

Nearby, March walked the Minimi's continuous fire after the blond boy riding what appeared to be a pair of flaming yoyos. Her sister's target performed a humanly impossible leap straight up, then twisted in mid-air and threw one of his infernal toy-weapons at her. March blew the transformed karate-kicking teddy bear back with a solid burst of 5.56mm NATO Standard.

June fenced with an eye-patch-wearing pirate girl. Another pirate, a tanned girl who was almost as fast as a cyborg, circled the duelists, looking for an opportunity to strike. May would have fired at the second pirate had not a blue bottlenose dolphin barreled into her, knocking her back.

Sept had disappeared somewhere after that counter-sniper cleanly nailed May on the head. (Fortunately her armor stood up to that surprise test. Getting hit by a large-caliber bullet did not do her temper any good, though.)

Damn Japanese freaks!

CLICK

Snarling, May tossed her expended SPAS-12 aside and charged the brown-haired Japanese pirate girl wielding the anchor.

Jack jacked (how the term made him grin so many times before, though now he was grim as Death) a fresh round into his Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle. This is getting rather exciting, he mentally understated.

They waged a contest of nerves. The first to linger a heartbeat too long in place lost. The loser died.

The winner? Got to live a little longer.

He had never hunted something that could hunt him back. Sure, a tiger or Cape Buffalo could easily turn on him and kill him despite his gun and skill. But they were just animals, though cunning and powerful they might be.

I'm hunting a human being. A cyborg.

A girl.

A killer.

"Let's dansu," Jack whispered.

Sept didn't quite know what the strange nagging thought at the back of her head was. Certainly it wasn't the killing intent of her surprisingly skillful opponent she sought out, and who stalked her in turn.

No one has ever been able to give me trouble before…

She caught herself there, and found her hands clutched her M14 designated marksman's rifle a tad tighter than her wont. Despite herself, she shivered.

I'm… excited?

Sept smiled to herself and her target. It is too bad I will have to kill you- or you me.

Leap puffed as she and her group pounded down the steel corridor leading to the escape pods. I'm too old and fat for this kind of adventure!

Janis the cat led the way. April brought up the rear. In her arms, March gurgled.

"Turn left at the next intersection!" April yelled.

"I know!" Leap returned.

Janis skidded to a halt. The cat's back hairs stood up like so many black spikes. She hissed.

April bounced off the stalled Leap's broad backside. "Ow! Leap! What is it?"

Three identical-looking little girls barred the cook's way. MP-5K SMGs hung on their shoulder. Their beaming faces were terrifyingly innocent.

"Found you!"

Akari learned about a cyborg's toughness the hard way at the hands of an unstoppable tanned girl with golden pigtails and baby blue eyes once upon a time in Rome, Italy, back with the Assassin Guild. That had been the most brutal battle she'd ever fought, one she didn't want to repeat, ever.

It was easy enough to deduce that her target would be at least as tough as that Section Two cyborg. Her swords wouldn't work. Neither would the rest of her arsenal. Save one item.

The diamond-toothed chainsaw ripped through the ceramic-based (surprises of surprises; Akari expected carbon compound material) armor protecting the cyborg's neck before abruptly stalling upon a titanium spine. Akari gritted her teeth against the ear-rending whine and the resulting shower of red-hot sparks.

Come on! Go through!

Her tool responded to her command. The saw tore through titanium vertebra armor. The cyborg's head popped off its shoulder.

Yes! Take that!

She gleefully watched the headless body slump against a control panel. Luckily it didn't seem to be capable of operation without a head. Stay that way, Akari mentally ordered.

"Akari?"

"Ask me if I'm okay again, John," she threatened, "And I might forget who you are."

At the Pirate Lord's feet, the cyborg's severed head looked surprised. "John?"

"Yeah," Akari answered for John, "He's John. Not Johnny."

The cyborg's green eyes glowed. "I see," it admitted after a few seconds. "You are correct. He is not Johnny."

"How'd you know?" Akari sarcastically asked.

"My specialty is data gathering and analysis. I accessed Johnny's biological profile and compared it to John. Their profiles are very similar but not 100 percent identical. There are discrepancies in the weight-to-height distribution ratio, musculature, voice..."

"Johnny is my twin brother," John said.

"I see. That would explain the significant similarities." Another significant pause: "Where is Johnny?"

"He's dead. He was killed in a war."

The cyborg digested that. "Why are you pretending to be him?"

"I'm not. I took over this ship to take care of his girls."

"Based on your physiological signature, I determine that you are telling me the truth."

"Then tell your sisters off!" Akari snapped at her.

"I cannot."

The angry Akari made to swing with the chainsaw. The cyborg did not even blink.

John stopped the angry assassin. "What's your name?" he asked the cyborg.

"February."

Akari and John stared. She's also called February?

"Who is your commander?" John asked in the most neutral tone he could summon.

"Our Mother, Madame Marciano."

Akari cursed beneath her breath. "Marciano!"

"You know her?" John asked.

"Leader of the Criminal Guild. One of the most dangerous criminals alive. Even Zato-sama was wary of her." The assassin almost spat. She glared at February. "Why are you after us?"

"We were ordered by Mother to capture Johnny."

"Well, she's a couple of years late in the running," Akari mockingly pointed out.

"Who's your immediate leader?" John asked.

"April."

Akari and John exchanged startled glances. "Where is she?"

"She is our team's commander. She has just reinforced our second team."

"Reinforced?" Icy fear washed down Akari's spine. "No!"

April seethed. Getting out of their improvised prison had been a matter of August squeezing through an air vent leading outside the cargo hold so she could manually unlock the doors. The diminutive grenadier ended up all dusty and complaining about her ruined clothes, her skirt having torn on a jagged piece of metal on the way out.

But now they were free of imprisonment. And very angry.

They made sure to take a pathway that had been earlier cleared of cameras. Now they hovered at the edge of the raging battle, unseen, unexpected.

April gritted her teeth. "Kill them all."

To Be Continued