Kale Vandelay has a GUN and Chai is going to have a BAD Time

by whumpcateyes (weirdcateyes)

Summary:

Kale Vandelay himself takes the CHAS-1R to go after Chai and Korsica on the lift in track 7. After the crash, a perfect opportunity to decommission the defect presents itself.
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Hey if you read this, can you comment and tell me what sort of tags I need to add? I'm bad at ao3 and don't really know what I'm doing.

Chapter 1: Shot through the Heart

Summary:

As the title implies, someone is getting shot.
*edit: fixed the chapter title from "to the heart" to "through the heart". Got my Bon Jovi lyrics wrong.

Of course it would turn out like this. Everything in the world was working against Kale Vandelay today and this was no exception. He had been so furious with Korsica’s betrayal that he went out of his way  to personally eviscerate her with his favorite of Zanzo’s little 'projects’, the CHAS-1R. For it, he was singed, bruised, and ruffled beyond belief. The L.I.F.T. had all but exploded, their high-speed chase suddenly becoming an impossible game of limbo in which both the bar and the player were giant, complicated pieces of machinery hurtling down a tight corridor at stupid speeds. Now Kale was crawling out of the crunched cockpit, frantically patting out his burning coat as he tried not to get ribboned by the mountains of broken glass joining him on the tunnel floor. At least Korsica and the defect were dead. 

As he stumbled to his feet, trying to shake off the ringing in his ears and double vision, the blurry shapes in front of him proved that silver-lining to be false. He blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times, the figures coming into focus.

The defect was knelt over Korsica, frantically trying to will her back to life. Kale almost laughed at the futile attempts, at how the defect was pressing his hands against the deep wounds to try and staunch the bleeding. Almost. He would’ve if he was in a better mood, but right now someone needed to pay for all this hassle and-- good news! The defect was right here, just waiting to have his annoying grin stomped against the pavement until his skull cracks and he dies helpless and alone down here. Or just shot, in this case. With a gun. 

He fumbled at his arms for a moment, relieved that the shoulder holster was still intact, and that the revolver hadn't fired into him. Yes, the gun was outdated. But when everything is designed to protect against laser fire and emps, most would-be assassins aren't prepared for good ol’ fashioned lead and gunpowder. Also, it just looked cool. What evil ceo could resist pulling an honest to god revolver from their coat in dramatic fashion at a moment of truth like this. 

Kale drew the firearm with a bit more flourish than was strictly necessary, taking four careful steps in perfect time as he checked the ammo with two clicks, took off the safety and cocked it with two more, then aimed at the defect’s back. Kale didn't have good rhythm. He never did. But now? Now everything he did was on beat to a song he didn't like. The defect was controlling him, that wasn't something he could forgive. He needed to die so that he could be taken apart and studied. He needed to know everything this power was capable of. And how to replicate it.

His hands were shaking with adrenaline and anger, but the cybernetics throughout his body compensated, straightening his aim and slowing the tremble to little more than a slight sway. His footfalls were muffled by the sounds of metal creaking and fire crackling in the wreckage surrounding. Only the emergency lights and the fires illuminated the scene, bathing everything in flickering orange and pulsing red. If he wasn't so furious, he may have taken a moment to enjoy the climactic moment.

He gritted his teeth at the annoying way his pounding heart was synced with the pulse of the lights. He tensed his shoulders at the destruction of property and the countless setbacks he was going to have to deal with because of his sister’s stupid rebellion. Kale had never imagined it would get this far, putting himself in actual danger. He sneered at his useless department heads, 2 dead, 1 betrayal, and 2- well Mimosa and Roquefort were still alive and loyal, so that wasn't an issue. Nevertheless, he was exhausted. This defect had put him through the ringer already and deserved every ounce of hatred he could muster. Kale wasn't about to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. He closed an eye to steady himself further, then squeezed the trigger. The bullet carved a true path through the sooty air, hitting its mark and plunging directly into the defect’s spine.

 

---

 

“Korsica!!” Chai shook the scot's shoulders, then remembered the thing you were (probably) supposed to do for large bleeding wounds and put both hands onto the fresh hole in her chest, leaning into it as hard as he could to hopefully stem the bleeding. It seeped, warm and sticky, through his organic and metal fingers. There was too much of it, too much to stop. Each beat of his own rhythm forced a little more out to soak into their clothes.

It was hard to spin this situation in a good light. He didn't have nearly enough hands to apply pressure to all the split flesh on her body, and 808 wasn't here, presumably smushed somewhere in the wreckage of the L.I.F.T. For the first time, Chai was wishing for the music to stop.

Oh god… Peppermint's gonna kill me!!

Thinking about how his new… friend? Colleague? Employer? Whatever- How Peppermint would react to his most recent string of recklessness was the only thing keeping him from crying like a baby right here and now. Jumping in front of a laser, desperately clinging to the head of security, praying that she was still alive, and most likely getting her robot-cat killed in the most insane car crash he'd ever had the misfortune of finding himself in. She was going to have his head for this. And it wasn't even Chai’s fault this time! Or maybe it was? Maybe all of this was his fault. Maybe he had brought heat to Peppermint's secret operation. Maybe he had caught Kale’s ire and gotten Korsica killed. Maybe all Chai did was fuck things up for everyone else.

His eyes darted around, trying to find something he could use. Cracked concrete? No. Burning oil puddle? No. Giant mech? No. Magnetic stick he hits people with? No! Everything was either broken, burning, or unhelpful. His eyes caught on the pulsing lights and fires, dancing to an upbeat rhythm that didn't fit anymore. He wished it would stop for even a few seconds. Long enough for him to focus. There was nothing to do about anything until a large plate of torn metal shuddered, then flopped to the side with a reverberating CLANG. 808 jumped out, the little black cat’s eyes glowing blue and pulsing with the music as she scampered over the battered duo. 

“808!!” Chai almost sobbed to see that the animal was still working. He wanted to reach out and grab the poor thing, but couldn't take his hands off Korsica. “Thank god!! She needs help- I don't know if-”

He cut himself off, sure that Peppermint, Macaron, and CNMN could see how bad it was. In the brief moment of silence, panic started to flood his chest. Chai decided it was a great time to start yapping, to get all the adrenaline out at the very least. “Did you see that?!?!? I was fucking heroic!!! All, like, Korsica!! Get out of the way!! And I tackled her! It was so cool!! And terrifying- please come get us-”

“Chai!” 808 opened her mouth, letting Peppermint’s voice through. “Get it together! We're on our way, but I need you need to keep her alive. Keep-”

“Keep pressure on the wound. I know that!” He interrupted, voice cracking slightly. “Problem: she has more wounds than I do hands! I don't know what the hell I'm doing!!”

808’s ears twitched and she turned to stare at something behind him. Peppermint muttered a breathless, “oh no…”

He didn't have time to turn around before the shot rang out, echoing off the walls in spectacular fashion.

Chai’s back arched as the bullet hit its mark, cutting through his jacket and shirt, straight through the device attached to his chest. The world seemed to come to a halt for a moment as the mp3 player broke and the glass holding it in shattered outward. He had a brief moment of total clarity and calm, as if the world slowed down just so he could see how bad it was about to be. Watching jagged shards of glass cut through the front of his shirt, along with a spinning, steaming hunk of metal, finished by spattered blood and electrical sparks. His vision tunneled around the bullet, watching it lose the last of its momentum as it tumbled to the ground.

Then the world returned to its normal speed. Peppermint yelled something, and pain raced through his entire body, jolting out like electricity from the burning center. Chai barely noticed any of it over the sudden, relentless pounding of a heartbeat all around him.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

Chai fell forward, organic arm clutching at his chest. His robot arm hung limply, and the electromagnet-stick-guitar-bludgeoning weapon crumbled into its scrap components.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

The only thing he could see was the pulsing emergency lights, burning into his retinas at the same tempo as everything else. He felt cold, clammy, scared.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

He realized the beat was the mp3 player, rapid and a little erratic, going haywire to compensate for the damage to his body. Peppermint was screaming.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

Chai landed on Korsica. His eyes were wide, but couldn't see anything other than the pulsing lights. Macaron was yelling something through 808’s speakers. The cat, herself, was darting forward, trying to look threatening.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

Someone grabbed his hair, said something he couldn't make out. A bead of icy sweat rolled down his back.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

Tossed him off of Korsica, still talking. Yelling now. Enraged. He was being frozen and burned at the same time. Frigid flames licked the base of his skull.

 

BUMP BUMP

 

A boot landed on his chest in time with the heartbeat, bouncing slightly to match it. Broken glass cracked a little more. It felt like the world was reverberating to every pump of his heart, shaking him into dust. There was more yelling- too much to make out who was who. 

 

BUMP BUMP

 

Everything went black. Leaving only the pounding of his heart in his ears.

Chapter 2: And You're to Blame

Summary:

Panic ensues, plans are changed.

Edit: I uh. Forgot to name the chapter. So I'm naming it something dumb

“CHAI!!!”

Everyone was screaming as they raced through the maintenance tunnels networking through Vandelay campus like veins. The tablet CNMN held up for them as they ran showed one of the worst possible outcomes this whole ordeal could've had. 

Kale was standing over Chai and Korsica, berating the former for his stupidity and pointing a gun at his head. He grabbed Chai by the hair, yanking him upright and tossing him to the side. “This is what happens when you FUCK with me!! You don't even know what your antics are going to cost MY company!!!”

Your company!? Peppermint thought angrily. Then she pushed it down. Vandelay Technologies’ rightful owner wasn't a fight she was going to win right now. There were much more immediate problems to deal with.

He stomped down on Chai’s chest, grinding his heel into the broken glass. It crackled beneath his boot, the audio sharp and painful to hear through the tablet’s speakers. He leaned over, emphasizing by pressing harder on broken Armstrong tech. “You could've been somebody! You could've been famous! And now you're just going to die with no allies, no chance, and NOTHING GAINED!!”

Chai was blinking rapidly for several moments, eyes unfocused, visibly pale, even in the dim light. Blood flowed freely, soaking his shirt in crimson. Then he stopped moving, limp on his back. The staggering flicker of the lights and fires didn't stop, with luck that meant he wasn't dead yet.

“I told you! You're out of your league, Defect!!” Then he rounded on Korsica, planting a kick into her side, “-And YOU! I gave you everything!!! This is how you repay me?!?”

808 charged the CEO, hissing and clawing at his legs to get him away from her unconscious (possibly dead) friends. Kale grabbed the cat by the scruff of her neck, pulling her off and throwing her into the wreckage where she clattered into the broken hand of CHAS-1R, which crumbled over her. The crew’s visual feed was just scrap and fire as she struggled to get back to her feet and turn around, everyone holding their breath for what they would see next. 

As they got closer to the security L.I.F.T tunnel, things began to move in that strange way that they did around Chai, everything in rhythm with the music playing from the device accidentally incorporated into his body. But the pulse was erratic, organic. A failing heartbeat, speeding and slowing at random intervals. It skipped beats and caught itself, matching no consistent signature like it usually did. Lights flickered, hissing vents and clanking machinery made a discordant chorus of the world. It all seemed to be screaming for help. 

Peppermint almost tripped over a vent cover that shot open with a hiss of steam. She stumbled, but Macaron caught her arm. Dragging her along until she got her footing back. It felt strange to run like this, with their steps forced into the broken pattern everything else was. Every step felt like she was about to trip on her own feet and topple over, but she didn't. No matter how close the beats got she didn't go down.

808 managed to clamber over a pile of scrap and focus her eyes back on the scene. For a moment they were once again watching the best soap opera anyone could imagine, which just so happened to also be the worst case scenario for their actual lives. Kale hovered over Korsica’s body, seemingly out of things to say to a corpse. 

Peppermint grabbed onto CNMN’s arm to steady herself long enough to study the scene and make a plan. Her cybernetic leg was doing a hell of a lot of compensation to keep going and her lungs were starting to burn with the constant sprint. Hopefully Macaron was doing alright. Apparently he was, because he scooped her up into his massive arms, she flailed in surprise and almost tripped all three of them.

“Do your thing! I've got you!!” He gave her an obviously forced smile while he regained his footing, nodding at the tablet in CNMN’s hand. He didn't seem too exhausted yet. Unlike her, both his legs were modified, letting him keep them going. Peppermint wanted to thank him, but her lungs were demanding she catch her breath first. So she focused back on the tablet.

With both of their allies completely motionless on the cracked concrete, things certainly didn't look good. But Chai must've been alive, since things were still pounding to his heartbeat. 808 wasn't close enough to really judge the extent of the damage to his cybernetics, so she just had to hope it wasn't as bad as it looked. Korsica’s situation, on the other hand, was looking bleak. She had lost far too much blood, if the amount on her clothes and pooling around her was anything to go by. Peppermint hoped she was wrong, but she didn't seem to be breathing. At best, they had minutes to get to her and do… something. She wasn't even sure what they'd be able to do about it.

Kale looked up and his eyes narrowed, seeing 808 watching from a distance. He didn't even hesitate before raising the gun and firing. The feed went to static. Peppermint screamed, almost throwing herself from Macaron’s arms to get at the tablet. As if it would help. 

“NO! NO NO NO!!! 808!!!!”

“You need to stay calm!! She’ll be okay!!” Macaron held tightly to her. He blinked back tears and forced himself to focus on not tripping over himself or anything else. They needed to get there before they could panic. 

 

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Kale was having mixed feelings about this whole ordeal. He stood alone in the burning wreckage, a headache pounding behind his eyes at a painful tempo. The scent of oil, smoke, blood and gunpowder assaulting his nose weren't helping in the slightest. The gun hung limply in his hand, a hair away from falling if he let it. Then that robotic cat caught his eye, watching from above on a tall piece of CHAS-1R that was wedged into a crack in the tunnel floor. He shot it before he could think any different. It's limp body tumbled to the ground and came to rest near the defect. Sparks jumped from its head and the lights that ringed its joints flickered a few times to the rhythm before fading out entirely.

On the one hand, he was victorious. The traitor and the defect were dying, and in spectacular fashion. At the very least, this would set Peppermint back by at least a year, if not significantly longer depending on what he did now. He stared down at his ex-head of security, her face slack, eyes closed. She looked infuriatingly peaceful. On the other hand, the damages were beyond belief. CHAS-1R and the L.I.F.T. were beyond repair. Production was at a standstill. R&D’s budget was gone. Mimosa would need to pull off one hell of a show to make sure no one noticed what was going on. Roquefort and the financing department would be working overtime to pull a little profit from the mess made in the past couple days. 

Engines and the rumbling of wheels on pavement snapped him out of his thoughts. Headlights cut clean through the pulsing emergency overheads, announcing the arrival of a rescue and maintenance crew. Machines flooded out of trucks and rolled in on their treads, immediately going to work. Putting out fires and clearing debris to get to their master. From a bit of distance, he watched how even they were affected by the defect’s… defect. Wheels trundled over bits of metal and concrete, shooting them out to clatter on the wreckage, hitting on and around the pulse of his heart. Hoses sprayed flame retardant foam in hissing waves on beat. He had to admit, the level of control was fascinating. If he could command this ability…

Kale accepted the medical bot’s scan of him. Allowing it to check him over for injuries. When another tried to approach Korsica, he planted a boot into its head, sending it clattering to the ground. “Leave her! She dies right here, right now.”

The poor thing clambered away with an electronic whine of apology. Kale rounded on his machines, whirring away like hive insects, chattering and working. The medical bot dabbed some antiseptic onto a cut on his forehead and he hissed in pain, but let it work. Another robot backed a truck designed to transport construction equipment too and from the various projects over campus up to him. It beeped at him from the driver's seat, “Please come with me, sir. I will escort you out of the tunnels.”

Kale nodded and took a step towards the truck, then paused. All of this- this carnage, and he knew his baby sister wouldn't stop. She might still be able to believe her goal worth pursuing, that the pain she inflicted was worth it to take him down. That killing two of his departments so fast was proof she had a chance. No- that wouldn't do. He had worked too hard for this company to have mommy's favorite ruin everything in her jealousy. Peppermint had a lesson she had to learn. Mind your own fucking business. 

He turned on a dime and stormed over to where the broken cat was sparking on the ground. He crouched and grabbed it by the scruff, it hung limp at eye level. Eyes open and unseeing. He was about to stand when it hit him that someone else was just as responsible for his bad mood right now. Korsica and the defect.

He looked down at the young man's body, Chai’s eyes were open, staring blankly into the distance. He appeared dead, except for the vibrations shaking the bloodied shirt that was sticking to the broken glass in his chest. The hole in the defect’s chest slowly oozed with a disgusting mix of blood, coolant, and the occasional spark of wet wires. Despite the damage, he was still functioning in a way. He wasn't gone just yet, and he had something worth keeping alive. The same didn't apply to Korsica. It took only a glance to tell Kale she was dead. Or so he assumed.

“Grab the defect, and bring us both to my office.” Kale ordered the medical bot that was watching him. He turned and stalked back to the truck, tossing the cat into the bed and climbing in to join it. “Leave the traitor. Let Peppermint find her corpse. Maybe it'll knock some sense into her.”

He waited until Chai’s body was tossed at his feet before motioning for the truck to start driving. As the engine rumbled and started up the L.I.F.T. tunnel, he sat crosslegged and leaned forward, brushing a little soot off the defect’s face and looking over him with a mix of triumph and curiosity. “Now… what can you do for me, hm?”