Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ What If ❯ A Transformation ( Chapter 8 )

Several weeks later, the entire group was sitting out on the front porch of the house. Meryl, Millie, and Mary were sitting around a round table, discussing wedding preparations. Jonathon and Vash sat about fifteen feet away, Meryl's father with his back to the women, and Vash facing him.

"To tell the truth, I wasn't very happy about your proposal at first," the older looking man admitted. "But you have Mary to thank for my change of attitude. She insisted that if her mother trusted and loved you, and our daughter decided you were right, then we should accept that you are the right man for our daughter."

"Your approval means a lot to me," Vash told his fiancée's father, looking at the wrapped up cross standing behind Millie. It seemed to follow her everywhere she went. "I know I have hurt her in the past, but that was before I realized what she meant to me. You needn't worry about that happening again." His gaze rested on Meryl, and he smiled. She now often found was to sneak little kisses with him, and also found ways to show her feelings for him constantly, beginning with the moment he had proposed to her. This was all new to him, and he found that he rather liked it.

Jonathon nodded. "I realize that now, after getting to know you. After listening to you and Meryl and Millie all explaining your past and the things you have done, I'm confidant that Meryl is doing the right thing with you."

A block away on the other side of the street, a darkly dressed man watched the happy group as they talked. He lit a cigarette and, within a minute, had burned it all the way down to the filter. The man watched them for at least twenty minutes before picking up the large metal cross next to him.

It took only moments for him to get to the other side of the street unnoticed, and another minute to get over next to the house. Next to the home of the Stryfes, and where Vash the Stampede was. Placing his feet far enough apart to brace himself, he separated the cross into it's two components, wincing at the noise of it's separation. Chapel the Evergreen would now complete his mission.

The sound of hydraulics caused Vash to sit up straight in alarm. A hurried glance showed him that Wolfwood's cross, now Millie's, was still wrapped up. And those hydraulics sounded so familiar.

Sudden realization made him jump out of his chair. Wasting no time with shouted warnings, he tackled Meryl's father. Using the momentum of his leap, he tangled his feet in his chair and kicked it towards the women.

Jonathon's face held an outraged glare. The women's held looks of surprise as the chair slammed into the table with enough force to knock it over. The three of them tumbled over in surprise. Meryl started to shout at Vash, but her outcry was cut off by the sound of bullets tearing through wood. Jonathon gulped for air as the gunman covered his body with his own.

"Stay down!" Vash cried as screaming bullets created billows of dust and smoke as they ripped through the house. The sound of shattering glass and the thump of splintered furniture merged into one sound.

Having somewhat regained his wits, Vash rolled off of the other man and came up in a crouch. A sudden gust of wind brought up another cloud of smoke as he ran, bent over, to where Wolfwood's Cross Punisher was now laying on the porch. A quick flick of his wrist and the latches opened; another flick and the cross opened to reveal double rows of pistols. Vash grabbed two of them and turned to the nearest corner of the house.

The reports of the machine gun's firing suddenly quit, and Vash was up and running. In his dust covered red shirt and black slacks, he skidded around the corner with both guns held up at shoulder height. As soon as he regained his balance, he ran towards the back of the house, his gunfighter's eyes searching for his enemy.

At the back of the house, there were no footprints. The only reminder of the assailant was a pile of spent shells. Vash quickly looked around, then pocketed a handful of the shells and returned to the front of the house.

The three women and the man quickly began assaulting him with questions. He ignored them all and walked back over to the cross. After putting the two pistols back and closing it up, he activated the cross' machine gun function.

Jonathon and Mary jumped back in surprise when he fired a handful of rounds into the dirt of the street. Meryl came up behind him and put her hand on the back of his arm.

"What's wrong, Vash? Who was shooting at us?"

He ignored her for a moment and reached down to pick up one of the shells from Wolfwood's cross, then pulled a shell out of his pocket. "Just as I thought," he said, his eyes scanning the street. Concerned townspeople were coming out to see what was the problem.

"What is it Mr. Vash?" Millie came up on his other side.

"These shells are the same," Vash pointed out. "This is a caliber that Wolfwood said was unique to the Cross Punisher. That's why he was always saving his shells, and making his own ammunition."

"But if we had the cross, how could someone else be using one?"

Vash raised his head to the sky, and tried to see the blue through the haze of the still present dust cloud. "There was one other cross," he told the two women in a quiet voice. "Chapel the Evergreen, Wolfwood's mentor and one of the Gun Ho Guns, carried a different version of the Cross Punisher. His simply split into two machine guns."

He looked down into Meryl's grey and lavender eyes. "Chapel is dead. Of that I am certain. But I am also certain that whoever just attacked us was also using his weapon."

More shots rang out, sending the townspeople scurrying for cover. Vash pushed Meryl and Millie to the side with one hand and spun around, bringing the cross up. Coming from on top of a building a hundred yards away, bullets tracked little puffs of dust up the street.

Vash squeezed the handgrip trigger on the cross, trusting his instinctive gunfighter's skill to guide the shots. The figure he was aiming at dropped out of sight, down the back of the roof of the building he was standing on.

He didn't miss a moment, and hit the street running. But once again, when he got to where the man had been, he was gone. This time, however, lying on the ground was the second Cross Punisher. Blood was smeared on one of the handgrips, and across the top of the other.

Vash packed up the second cross, and carried both back to where Millie, Meryl, and Meryl's family were. By the time he arrived, they were already arranging for their surviving furniture and belongings to be transferred to the town inn.

Ignoring everybody, Vash went straight to the trunk of the car, dropping the two crosses next to the vehicle and digging out his worn old travel bag. He pushed his way through the crowd and back into the ruined house.

Hearing him stomp up the stairs and remembering the dead serious look on his face, Meryl ran after him. She found him up in the room she had been sharing with him, stripped down to his underwear. Laid out on the bed was his familiar old brown body armor and bright red coat. He took the stud earring out of his ear; Meryl had bought him a diamond stud about a week earlier to help further him from his legend. In it's place, she saw, he hooked his familiar little hoop.

She watched in silence as he snapped the body armor on, and donned the coat. When he drew the two pistols out of the bottom of the pack, she gasped.

"What will this accomplish, Vash?" she demanded.

His straightened up to his full height, spinning the two pistols in his hands. In his left spun the black pistol, Knives' pistol, and in his right was the pistol Knives had made for him.

"This accomplishes the only thing of importance," he said, turning to her as he snapped the two large handguns down into their holsters. "All of you could have died because I wasn't prepared, and I wont let that happen."

"But Vash, if you go outside like that, then everyone will know who you are." Meryl was starting to get frightened by the look on his face. She had never seen him look like this: deadly rage and cold fury both bottled up underneath a deathly calm mask. But now she recognized the necessity of this for him; recognized with this attack on them how necessary it was for him to make a statement wearing his battle armor. A statement that said that he is Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon and the man responsible for the destruction of both July and Augusta, and for the hole in the fifth moon. And while that was not done out of a desire for destruction, he was still capable of it. This was Vash wearing his reputation as a second layer of armor.

She picked her cape up off of the floor and threw it around her shoulders, making sure all of the Derringers were still attached to the lining. Running as fast as she could out of the room and down the stairs, she reached him just before he got to the front door.

It must look ridiculous, she knew. Here she was, barely five feet tall, standing behind the six foot figure of nightmares. Yet she knew that the scowl she now wore would frighten anyone who wasn't already feeling so at seeing Vash.

A harsh gust of wind blew a cloud of dust across the front of the house, between the door and where the crowd of people were standing around Millie and Meryl's parents. When it cleared, their first view of Vash was to see his coattails snapping in the wind as he pushed his yellow sunglass up on his face and closer to his eyes. Several of the people noticeably paled, and others tapped the shape of a cross across their chest. Even Meryl's parents took an involuntary step backward.

"What--What is this?" Meryl's father demanded.

Vash gave him a cold, gunfighter's stare. "This happened because I was ill prepared to deal with it," he said spreading his feet into a gunfighter's stance. Millie drew her stun gun and threw it over her shoulder, coming at a run to stand behind Vash. "The three of us have been lax too long. We have fought enough to know better, and will never be caught unawares again.

"Let this man come. Let him draw me out. For I am not alone, and together the three of us are undefeatable."