Riley looks at this Amy individual, shocked.
"You. I have never disclosed his last name, nor could you hear me and Alister talk about Melvin. How do you know such…? And the lights? We can consume those to become stronger?" States the scientist, amazed.
Amy remains silent. She's focused on what's coming to get them.
This disgusting monster, once a cat with a submachine gun attached to its tail and mounted on its back, and once a young boy, sprints furiously towards what can only be compared to a pack of insects, insignificant to its objective.
Its steps contact the ground with pressure, with force. Its footprints leave craters about 5 feet deep. Every connection to the ground is met with seismic quakes that destabilizes the targets. In this anger, this obsession to destroy, Nil holds the left side of its rib cage with its right hand. It has healed its legs. It's effectiveness on other parts of its body is minimal. Nil saves the energy for what it considers to be up most important: catching up to its kill.
It embodies the mutually shared obsession to see this through to the end, yet twists it into its elaborate madness, screaming and tossing his left arm around like an unstoppable rag doll.
Everyone is alarmed, but not Amy.
She dashes at the thing without a care in the world, leaving everyone in trepidation.
"Bitch, the hell are you doing!? Do you wanna die!?"
She doesn't respond to Alister.
Amy is staring back at the beast like it's a Sunday afternoon. Nothing special to look at.
The first instinct of Melvin is to shout as harshly as it can while smashing the ground with a right jab right where the lady is standing. She elegantly jumps out of the way before getting squashed into paste, as her last position is turned to rubble. She steps back a bit before breathing in a rather colossal amount of air.
It's to the point where we can see the traces of wind particles absorbed and being directed to her mouth. She's performing her next attack while starring directly into the glowing holes that serves as Melvin's eye sockets. Ominous. If the machine of carnage she was carrying around akin to a toy was cold, she is colder. Something about her pose makes her intimidating even when standing up still, on the defensive.
Amy feels like nothing.
Zephyr can sense this lack of heart, this lack of soul, in the way she maneuvers, a program taking the shape of a human body, or rather what that program shapes the human to be.
Many had heard about research on artificial intelligence made in the early 2020s. Dramatically quarantined after the bombshell years of 2025 would be an understatement. Some of the breakthroughs that we're made in the first half of the decade were left to rot like the skyscrapers of old.
If scientists ever visualized something terrifying as androids or A.I.s controlling a superhuman body, then Amy is probably taking inspiration from such nightmares.
Amy.
A name that wholesome can be placed onto a purely logical calculation of what a person is.
Why does she seek to hide what seems to be a treasure trove of knowledge behind this gigantic wall? What treasure is she hiding? If she's truly the puppeteer behind all the masquerades that happened through their journey, why did she do it?
Zephyr feels hands abruptly snapping on his ears without him realizing, caught in a trance of questions and bemusement to see that Amy was actually preparing to scream her lungs out.
Amy indeed screeches. Her yell reaches miles on top of miles. This must be her power in this place.
By pure reflex, Zephyr extends his arms in the air and reaches for the person's face. He recognizes Riley J. Smith from the unkept beard and without a second thought places his hands on his savior's ears, pressing them on the scientist's head as hard as he can.
Urth, Alister and Eylventh all protect their ears as well.
Melvin doesn't seem to have any ears, but clearly there are different weak spots Amy can access. The giant's definition of a human body is sloppy due to its size and lack of understanding on how to replicate the human's skin. Amy's screech easily penetrates the monster's gluey surface.
Yet...Melvin does not fall.
Amy reaches the apex of her vocal cord's capabilities, trashing at this creature as much as she can, but stops abruptly, coughing as she places too much strain on her voice. Her first sign of an emotion, and it's as light as a simple look of disdain on her face.
"I see... My powers are quite limited without the suit... I should have known." Exclaims Amy.
Everyone else is leaving their ears wide open again, equally in disbelief at the lack of impact her infamous screech left on Melvin. It's forming under the gluey skin what Riley can perceive with disgust to be a grin. It enjoys how weak they are facing such a mighty foe. If it wasn't for the Bottomless Pit, he would have died in the hands of this wretch. Her own domain caused his powerful transformation. His gratitude will, sadly for her, translate into death.
As he approaches and mockingly levitates its leg at the pace of a turtle, lifting it with this pretentious suspense, Urth can see that light expression on Amy's face. It remains unchanged.
She's pushing forward regardless of the crystal-clear outcome.
Urth, no, Terrence, has been asking itself for some time what would happen if it decided to not follow on its master's footsteps, and run away before the jump to the pit. Looking at Melvin, a lot could have been saved.
Is it really on itself to blame for the fate of its friends? Urth was once a child who wished for a girlfriend and his best friend to stay by its side. It got what it wished for at the expense of losing it all right after.
Terrence. He wasn't there.
He cannot understand how much this vengeance means to Melvin. This is all he has left. Melvin was turned into a cat, forgot everything, and then had to sit it a corner as it painfully remembered everything in absolute details.
The words of his parents as he was called an anomaly, an undeserving brat, pathetic, dimwit, a failure. It wasn't his fault that his parents couldn't care less about him, but they had to mistreat him, because they had fragile egos.
Melvin was too young to know that.
When he was deported to America and sent into Old York, he thought he was going to die. He thought he would be wiped off the streets and would never make it out alive. Instead, he was sent into a community home with sponsorship funds from Vancarther, and he was placed there with Terrence. They would consider themselves best friends for life.
At the same time, Melvin was seeing something in Florence that could potentially kill his friendship, and didn't want to lose that. He was too shy to express his honest feelings and envy, so he let it all boil inside. Letting all those feelings locked up, thinking they would go away one day. These unchecked emotions would only add to the trauma, the fear of abandonment and the intensifying need to control everything...
Melvin was too young to know that.
He was too young to go through what he went through. Terrence and Florence themselves were too young to go through what they went through. But they were last.
Every kid we're given a number. Melvin was separated from his friends. They didn't even try to come up to him and save him. They didn't bother. And so, he screamed. Unlike the other kids, who screamed in terror, agony, sadness, Melvin screamed in rage. He couldn't control that gnarly crave to obliterate not just the doctor, but the whole world.
He couldn't know this wouldn't do any good. He couldn't know that it would only mean the death of his soul. He couldn't know that such thirst for revenge would never be quenched.
You could say that Melvin is too young to know that.
Terrence knows.
Of the few things that he knows, Terrence knows about the dangers of shame-inspired grudge, seeking carnage out of guilt and proving the low self-esteem belief that one is nothing to the world. The world shouldn't be nothing to him.
Terrence believes Melvin is on the wrong path and has strayed so far off the other end that there's no turning back.
Urth believes Nil is lost in his own delusions, amplified by the corruption of his brain and the enormous power given by the fireflies.
They we're once friends.
They are now enemies.
This is how Urth justifies darting for the monster, charging headfirst with a big leap before Nil crushes the bizarre women. Urth stores airs in its mouth, then blows the leg away, forcing the demon to fall on its back due to the lack of balance. Nil hits the ground with tremendous impact, creating a pile of dust that falls in the face of everyone.
"Th-The hell!? Urth, not again, get back here now!!" Screams Zephyr.
"Are you serious?? It's the second time Urth does this!"
"Doc, it's what distracted Amy the first time it tried to kill us, remember!?"
"I didn't hear it the first time Alister! What the hell are you-!?"
"No time for chat!" Interjects Zephyr. "We have to help it!"
Amy steps back and gets in the way of the three humans. Zephyr and Riley stops dead on their tracks, unlike Alister who pushes through, having had enough of this woman. Amy on the other hand has returned to the cold, android stare, standing and watching as the assassin approaches her with killing intent.
"And what the fuck do you have to add to the matter, robot girl? Out of our way." Growls Alister.
"I won't let you. It is not a request I will make, but an order. This is business between Melvin Whitewood and Terrance Darwin."
Hearing her speak their names which such clarity makes Riley shiver.
"Why... Why in the hell do you know all of this?? I have never disclosed the original names of those children! Explain yourself!
"Riley, not the time to question her! If you still got braincells left, go out there and help your pets!" Screams the hunter in frustration. Amy takes that time to dash at the scientist and smack him straight on the floor with her giant right fist. She's quick on her feet, to the point even Alister must admire her abilities. A battle ensues between both, as Amy makes sure to pin the assassin down so he cannot interfere.
Zephyr has no idea what to do. The situation is too dramatic for him to know what to make of things.
Seeing this display of uncertainty, something clicks in Eylventh. The crocodile starts shaking its head before looking at the direction of Nil and Urth, as they are about to do battle. It's eyes are wide open, looking terrified of the situation. Zephyr witnesses this, realizing he has never seen this side of Eylventh before.
Out of nowhere, the reptilian bird jumps in the action and flies directly towards Nil. It looks worried. Really worried.