Awakening Nightmare [Goro + Yusaku]

Despite the great weight Goro perceived holding him down, they were shockingly light enough on their feet that the guard never had a chance to hear them coming. Their leg was already in the air by the time the thug had even turned his head.
A dry laugh fought its way from Goro’s throat, and he fell into an adrenaline-fueled, disturbing bout of cackling as Izumi followed up on their attack. The weight he’d been feeling until a moment ago lifted all at once, and for the first time that night he actually felt as if Izumi were an extension of himself. The laughter, distorted, robotic, and static-y thanks to Izumi’s voice modulator broke through the night’s silence and echoed through the dockyard.
He regained control of his limbs before the mad laughing was even close to ending, and scanned the cameras in his vision for his next victim. He quickly settled on two mouthbreathers that appeared to be only displayed by one feed, just like the first they’d taken out.
In absence of verbal communication, Goro simply tapped where the camera feed was being displayed on the visor and hoped Izumi would understand. Once he heard the telltale pop and crackle of Izumi’s handiwork, he’d spring into action, bounding in the direction of the broken camera and soon-to-be broken gangsters, laughing all the while.
Only when he could hear the thugs directly in front of him did his laughter cease. For a moment, he was motionless, simply glaring into the eyes of his next target, before he bound forward and aimed a clawed punch for his nose, followed by an uppercut to the jaw.
He turned to the other one and whispered, revelling in the way his voice twisted as it fed through Izumi’s microphone. “You’ve been harassing my kind, haven’t you? You and your moronic friends. I suppose you think that just because the law says we can’t defend ourselves, that we’d roll over and take it. That we’d lick your boots and cower in fear.”
Goro stomped a talon down around the man’s foot, intending to trap it in place. “What gave you that impression?” He hissed, leaning so close to the thug he was sure he’d be able to smell the tobacco and alcohol on his breath if it weren’t for Izumi.

The pathetic whimper that came from their next victim prompted a repeat of Goro’s earlier laughter, magnified by proximity until it seemed to echo all around the poor unfortunate thug, surrounding him as much as the dark of night did. His throat hurt now, so the laugh came out scratchier as he continued, but he didn’t have the self control to stop himself. It ceased on its own a lot sooner than the previous one though, and he tilted his head mockingly at the pipe wrapped in his tail.

“Is that all, then?” He gloated, before swinging the tail back at the thug’s face, bashing his nose in with the pipe. It only occured to Goro a moment later that he’d just moved Izumi’s tail as if it were merely another limb of his own. A bizarre feeling, but certainly not one he disliked. He followed up with another swing of the pipe at the thug’s legs, knocking him on his ass.

He uncoiled the tail from the pipe, grasping it with one of their talons before stomping on the hooligan’s right leg, trapping it. Goro momentarily considered it a shame that Izumi was obscuring his face, as he wished the wicked grin that spread across his face were visible to this unfortunate fool.

“P-Please… We won’t bother any of you again! I’ll tell the boss!” The coward cowered before Nightmare, trying to back up as much as he could with his one free leg. His eyes were wide and his pupils contracted; Goro could hear every shiver that wracked the thug’s body in excruciating detail; vicious enough that his talon was vibrating from the force.

“You say that, but…” Goro flipped the pipe around casually as he spoke, “Those are just pretty words, aren’t they? You’ll be right back to it in a day or two, maybe a week at most?” He tapped the trapped leg’s kneecap with the pipe three times, before grinning. “I’d rather have insurance you’ll keep to that.”

Crack. Goro swung the pipe down suddenly, and the hooligan’s kneecap broke. For a glorious, calm moment, the only noise was the echo of the impact, but then the thug’s mouth fell open and his screaming obscured anything and everything else. It would be satisfying, if it didn’t feel like Goro’s eardrums were about to split open every second he continued.

“Shut the fuck up!” He yelled, peaking the microphone inside the helmet, as he brought the pipe down again onto his other leg. The interruption only lasted for one blissful second, before he resumed his screams again.

Goro turned away from the thug on the ground and jumped backwards just as a bullet whistled by where they’d been standing a second earlier. “Ah, speak of the devil…” Goro muttered, staring down the dark figure on the other side of the junkyard. He was too far for Goro’s quirk to make him out, but camera 15 gave him a perfect view of the smoke dispersing from a pistol’s barrel.

Goro’s neck ached from Izumi suddenly pulling his head down into a crouch. Before he could even open his mouth to voice a complaint, he heard a volley of bullets whiz by where their head had been not a moment before. He’d been so focused on the first gunman, he’d failed to notice the other entirely. Yet another advantage of a second mind backing him up, Goro supposed, that their focus could split like that.

It felt like Izumi was almost shaking around him. Built up energy reserves, maybe? At least, despite how disappointing the robot’s no-kill demand was, anything short of that seemed okay with him. After all, he hadn’t complained at the prospect of leaving these thugs crippled or worse. Would he object to blinding? Amputation? What was his actual limit?

Goro let Izumi walk their shared body over to the camera 13 gunman, only nodding at Izumi’s clever use of the car door shield. Over from camera 15, two more shots were fired, but Goro ducked under both with ease, not even needing to break Izumi’s stride in the process.

It really seemed like the robot was just copying him at this point. He hadn’t impaled the previous thug’s leg with the talons, merely trapped it, but this was roughly the same position. And roughly, the same method of torture as well. Judging by his choice of words though, he was still inexperienced with sounding as threatening as he really was, and Goro was almost a little offended that the thug would think them to be from the same source. He’d have to advise Izumi on such things at a later date.

Another gunshot fired as their claw was dug deep into the hooligan’s shoulder, but suddenly Goro couldn’t move. He was so engrossed in their latest victim that he’d fallen unresponsive to the movements of his pilot. The first bullet flew by an inch from their helmet, before Goro could finally pull their head down.

It felt like an eternity before Izumi snapped out of whatever fugue state he was in and actually responded. Clearly, he’d not been paying attention to their surroundings. “Camera 15.” Was the only reply Goro gave, before attempting to grab their makeshift shield with their tail once more. It took a few tries for him to move the tail; he’d been able to do it on instinct before, but now that he was actually thinking about it it took a lot more effort. He had to keep in mind the exact point in his body that Izumi was reading motion from to interpret as tail motions, and figuring out what twitches of that muscle meant what moves of the tail was harder than he’d first thought.

It didn’t take too long in real time for the tail to shoot out and stick itself back into the glass of the car door, moving it back into position in front of the bat robot. Nightmare charged at the other gunman, repositioning the car door every time Goro heard a bullet approaching so that it would ricochet off the metal parts rather than further breaking the glass. The distance between them was closed in a few seconds, ending in the tail coming down on the gunman’s head, the full weight of the car door following.

Glass shattered, practically shredding the gangster’s face, and he fell unconscious almost immediately from the blunt force. Had he been on his own, Goro would’ve taken the opportunity to finish him off, but unfortunately he had to restrain himself for the moment.

Scanning over the cameras once more, Goro couldn’t spot any more of the bastards coming for them. Either they were all in hiding, or Nightmare had successfully put down the entire gang. However, Goro didn’t want to assume they were in the clear now, lest he make the same mistake Izumi had moments before.

“Now, I think we have all of them. Do you see any activity on the cameras?” He asked, repeating the motion of adjusting his glasses against Nightmare’s visor. “If not, we should return to the hotel.

“Good.” Goro responded, but he still checked over the cameras one last time before accepting Izumi’s response, just to be sure.

Giving control of his body over to someone else the way that piloting Izumi demanded was still something Goro couldn’t come to terms with. Every squeeze or stretch of the robot’s interior padding was just another reminder that for that moment, his body wasn’t entirely his own. That, intentionally or not, Izumi could withhold basic movement from him, and make his own chassis into a prison for however long he wanted. His wings longed to stretch out and be free once more, but the dull pain at their base was enough to discourage him from requesting such a thing.

However, even with his overwhelming discomfort toward his arrangement with the robot, it was impossible to deny how much he’d enjoyed his first outing as Nightmare. The power that he could feel crackling between his claws, the weight of his talons against that thug’s leg, it was something he couldn’t just give up. He needed more of it.

“I concur,” was his only response to Izumi’s assessment. He was fairly certain they hadn’t left any evidence pointing to their identities anyway, considering his hands had been covered and he doubted Izumi’s talons had fingerprints, but he reluctantly let Izumi check over their handiwork anyway.

Goro fell silent as they leapt between rooftops, trying to shake off the discomfort of his limbs moving without his own input. He breathed a deep sigh of relief as they finally climbed back into the hotel room. His arms fell forward as far as Izumi would allow them, and his wings unfurled the moment they had the space to. He immediately winced in pain as he accidentally stretched the holes at the base, despite the bandages.

Despite the pain, Goro had to admit they didn’t look half-bad with his wings fully spread. The lack of armour on his wings bothered him, but they certainly looked as intimidating as he wanted to be. A million thoughts suddenly rushed into Goro’s mind, as he tried to work through how to construct wing armour that would suit Izumi’s chassis. Lost in thought, it took him almost a full minute to register that Izumi had even spoken, and another minute to actually respond.

“I’d prefer not, honestly. It’s a little stifling in here, and I…” He trailed off, considering what to say. Izumi wanted honesty from him, so perhaps he should tell him what he was planning, but perhaps the robot wouldn’t appreciate Goro prying into how he functioned like that. 
But, it occurred to him, maybe Izumi would appreciate having wings. Maybe that would be enough for him to entrust the specifications of his technology to Goro. That thought alone is what made him continue to speak.

“I want to examine you from outside. There is a possibility I could build an extension for your chassis, so that the next time we go out as Nightmare, it will be less… awkward.” If Yusaku would allow him, he’d check over the shirt left for him, running one of their claws between the wing holes. They were surprisingly well-cut, exactly the right size for his wings. Had this been ironed after the holes were cut in? How long had they actually been out for? Suddenly, Goro felt a lot more tired than he was before as he remembered his promise to Nick. Did he even have the time to prepare for whatever Nick had in mind now?

“I haven’t intentionally lied to you so far.” Goro collapsed onto the bed next to Yusaku, his posture still somehow stiff despite how he practically fell off his feet. It wasn’t any kind of conscious effort to drive emotion from his movements, but instead almost second nature. “Whether you believe it or not, I’ve been as honest as my situation allows.”

His eyes narrowed at the claw on his chest, though he didn’t move to stop it or even flinch. He’d expected this response, honestly, and he already regretted even speaking his mind about it. As Izumi’s tail swished from left to right and back again behind him, Goro didn’t move his gaze from the claw, but his echolocation focused in on it, hyper-aware of every time it swung closer to him.

He didn’t want to give up entirely on the idea, and even just piloting Izumi had given him a fair idea of how he functioned on a basic level, but pushing the subject outright wasn’t likely to get him anywhere. There was another concern he had, though, that may also bring him closer to his goal.

“Understood.” He replied, his gaze finally lifting from the talon to meet Izumi’s projected eyes. “However, I would think allowing me even a momentary examination of your chassis would be a good idea. Even if neither of us noticed it, you may have been damaged by tonight’s events, and returning home with a bullet mark is the last thing you want.”

He was still being honest there, he had no intention of trying to pick out operational details should Izumi actually relent and give him the opportunity. Anything he happened to notice would certainly help him with it anyway, but that was no longer at the front of his mind. While he spoke, he slipped the fresh shirt on, only pausing for a moment in surprise at how well it fit, and the comforting feeling of fabric against his fur instead of the suffocating padding of Izumi’s interior.

“Ah, your cousin must have gotten my shirt size from the tatters I’d left.” He commented, slipping his wings through the holes in the back. It was actually rather impressive how accurately the holes had been cut, considering the state his original shirt had been in, and he pondered for a moment if he should enlist Izumi’s cousin’s services again to tailor other clothing for himself. It would certainly come out better than his own attempts at taking scissors to the fabric.

“That certainly would’ve been interesting to see, you in a suit…” Goro commented, pulling the jeans that had been left for him up. He was far from a fan of jeans, but he wasn’t in any state to complain about free clothes. What else could he do, stick with his damaged pair and walk home with massive gaping holes in his trousers? That would almost certainly draw way too much attention to him, far more than slightly unfitting jeans.

He watched the claw move away from his chest, and sighed as Izumi ran his diagnostics, disappointed in himself for not considering that the robot would have such a thing. His gaze followed Izumi over to the bin, then the drawer he kept his spare parts in. He expected Izumi would notice if he borrowed anything from there, but despite that suspicion he still committed the drawer to memory for whenever he visited next.

Even knowing his chassis was modular was already giving Goro some idea of how to begin integrating the armour for his wings. He already knew Izumi could remain connected to networks remotely from their hacking of the cameras earlier, so all he’d likely need to do would be implementing motors and a short-range transmitter into the armour. Would he even need to implement haptic feedback into them?

As the robot turned back to him, Goro backed up and grabbed his ruined trousers from the floor, careful to avoid exposing the tablet still hidden underneath. His face betrayed nothing of his response to Izumi’s questioning, but his wings twitched slightly, first in vexation and then in pain as the movement made pain shoot through them again. Even so, he allowed him to finish speaking before turning away and standing up from the bed.

“I told you the truth when you asked the first time; if I were to answer you right now, it’d only result in a repeat of these,” despite his injuries, he flexed his wings to emphasise the bandages, “Or worse. If you’re going to set rules for our arrangement, I’d like to set one as well. Refrain from prying into my personal affairs; as Nightmare or in your own time.”

He turned back to face Izumi for a moment, taking in his chassis once more, and the image of that very same form broken under Mother’s foot flashed through his mind for just a moment. Adjusting his glasses in an attempt to hide the shiver that ran through him, he turned back to the door. “Please. For your wellbeing as well as mine.”

With that, he walked to the door and left, slipping the tablet from his trousers and placing it back into his pocket. Perhaps Izumi was watching him from the cameras again, but he’d never said anything about where the tablet was anyway, so he hadn’t lied about it.

When he finally reached the front desk and handed the key back, he paused for a moment, before muttering out a request for a refund and leaving. The sun was just peeking over the horizon now, and the crisp morning breeze cut right through the bandages and irritated his wounds. There was no way he could fly back to his hotel like this, he’d have to walk.