by WOTNOPOLIS: 32
“Why’d you pick this body?” TFK said as he looked at the man inside the glass tube.
“No real reason,” Venomu motioned with the back of his hand. “He was just a subject I had test ready. It really means nothing to me.”
TFK nodded and looked back at him. “Mhm. I’m sure you put no thought into who you chose for this experiment at all.”
“What if I found someone really annoying for it so that I could torture you?” Venomu laughed.
“I hope you didn’t,” TFK groaned. “You’re already plenty annoying.”
“So kind,” Venomu rolled his eyes as he pressed a button.
The man fell out of the test tube. He blinked his eyes rapidly as he looked around the room. “What’s going on? Where am I? Who are you?”
“You were, oh, I don’t really remember the name. We’re just going to call you Jose, sound good?” Venomu said to the man. He pointed at TFK and smiled, “And that’s your new jerk of a boss.”
“Shut up for a moment, Venomu,” TFK said. He walked over to Jose and looked at him. “Are you scared of me?”
“No,” Jose shrugged as he stared up at the giant.
“Good,” TFK smiled. “Since we created you, you’re now my son, Jose. You live only to kill for me and you love to destroy. If you do that you’ll make me happy. Understand?”
Jose stared at him for a moment before smiling. “I can do that.”
****
Yoyo was growing irritated. “What’s going on here?” she asked as she swung her blades in a circular motion around her. Each person that had surrounded her fell in a pile of blood.
“I have no idea,” KKQ said as she fired her pistol into the group of people.
Yoyo felt a person land behind her and pointed her swords to her right and left. “What do you think, Knssquad?”
The person that landed behind her grabbed a man and slammed him into the ground. “Cover me while I take a look at this guy,” Knssquad said.
“Got it,” Yoyo said as she sliced her blades in different directions. Smoke wafted off her sword and created a protective bubble around Knssquad and the struggling man she’d shoved to the ground.
KKQ blasted a man to the ground and looked over at the doorway. It didn’t seem like there was any end to the amount of people coming out of there. “We’re so close,” she said. “It seems a shame that we’re being blocked here.”
Knssquad hopped out of the shadow and knocked a man standing next to Yoyo to the ground. “So,” she began. “I think these people have been drugged by TFK. These people are definitely addicts that he’s using to fend off intruders. Kind of like keeping starved watchdogs except…”
“Unbelievable,” Yoyo whispered. She pointed her lightning blade toward the doorway and shot a blast of lightning at it. Smoke immediately moved off her other blade and created two separate walls.
“Wow,” KKQ said as she stared at the pathway Yoyo had created. “That’d be really freaking scary if that wasn’t on our side.”
“Amazing,” Knssquad smiled. “Let’s go!”
The group charged through the pathway into the next room Yoyo had formed with smokey walls on each side of them. Yoyo’s lightning blade lit the way as they ran through the dark room.
“Sad,” Knssquad whispered as she stepped over the bodies that Yoyo’s blade had blasted.
The group reached the other side of the room and found a wall with no doorway. “The door could be anywhere,” KKQ said. Yoyo’s smoke wall was beginning to deteriorate around them. “We’re probably going to have to fight our way through this room to fight it.”
“If we do that we’ll all end up dead,” Knssquad said as she tossed an apple at the wall. “Everybody duck!”
The wall exploded from Knssquad’s grenade. Yoyo’s smoke wall crashed after the explosion and the group of people began to close in on them.
Knssquad dashed through the hole she’d created in the wall. Yoyo followed behind her. Death and Dei’s remaining men climbed through the exit. Bodies started to crawl through the hole in the wall towards them.
“They’re coming through!” Knssquad said as she beat them with her banana bat. “Where are KKQ and Death and Dei?”
Bodies clambered through the hole at a chance to grab one of them. The small group did their best to push them back as they waited for the others to show up. “You don’t think that they?” Knssquad asked.
Bodies flew in all directions as KKQ fell through the hole. She shielded her eyes as she tripped into the bright, fluorescent hallway carrying two people under her arms.
“Thanks,” Death said as KKQ laid them both down.
“We owe you one,” Dei followed up.
“I told you they were fine,” Knssquad patted Yoyo on the back.
“You did no such thing!” Yoyo snapped as her sword blasted people away from the wall.
“Hey,” KKQ said as she looked over at Yoyo and Knssquad. “Go on ahead from here. Death and Dei aren’t ready to fight again and need to take a break. And we’re wasting too much time on this. So go on ahead.”
“No,” Yoyo said simply.
“This group is too much for all of us to handle. You don’t need to try and take them by yourselves,” Knssquad shrugged.
KKQ shook her head and laughed. “Sorry, but you Eagle gangsters are the reason we’ve made it this far. And you guys are the ones we’re all counting on to stop TFK. We’ll stay here and hold back these people. Once we finish here we’ll catch up with you! I promise.”
Yoyo stared at KKQ for a moment and nodded. “Got it. Don’t die here.”
She started running down the hallway. “Hey, wait up!” Knssquad yelled. “Geez. Good luck guys!”
****
JZ landed next to Zergio. The man firing guns from behind a car nodded at his friend. “There’s so many of them,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to hold out after all.”
JZ sighed loudly as he tried to catch his breath. He had just run from one side of the battlefield to the other. “I just came over here to warn you that we’re not going to last much longer on that side,” he pointed to where he’d come from.
“We’re not doing a lot better over here,” Zergio said as his bullets went through the helm of a helicopter. He smiled as he watched it lose control and fall to the Earth. A wall of fire shot into the air where it landed.
“I know,” JZ stood up. He focused on a nearby jeep filled with TFK’s men firing at them. He lifted it into the air and shoved it into another jeep parked nearby. The explosion rung out and he smiled.
A pain in his side caused him to drop to his knees. “You alright, Jz?” Zergio asked him.
The man was drenched in sweat and winced as he grabbed his side. “Yeah, I’ll be okay,” he said.
Zergio knew better than to press on him in their situation. “Just be careful,” he said. “And if you see any ammo or weapons let me know. I’m almost out here.”
JZ nodded as he raced away from where Zergio was hidden. He shook his head as he watched him disappear into the dust of the battle. “I really hope the Eagle gang can pull this off.”
The sound of something exploding behind him pulled his attention away. An immense pressure came over him as he looked over his shoulder toward the ruined building. He couldn‘t tell what was going on but he knew that something powerful had emerged in Clair‘s fight. And something evil.
****
Clair hit the ground and rolled back to her feet. Bricks had scattered around her from where Jose’s attack had hit the wall behind where she’d been standing a second before. She had narrowly dodged another attack of his and she was quickly becoming exhausted.
Jose pulled his hand out of the wall and kicked his feet off the ground. Clair jumped to the side and crashed into a wall. Behind her Jose smashed through another wall and laughed loudly. “Oh! This is definitely how it should be!” he yelled.
Clair didn’t have time to think as she leapt over a wall and further into the ruins away from him. She didn’t have a plan as much as an instinct that she needed to get away. Every part of her told her that if she stayed near Jose she would die. She had to put distance between him and her.
She didn’t like to be near her opponents. She preferred the distance she could have in fighting with a bow and arrow. It allowed her to judge and decide how to take down an enemy. And it gave her plenty of time to run away or dodge an attack if she needed to. She had never intended to run away from a fight but it was good for her to know that she wasn’t trapped.
The ruins were beginning to feel like a maze to her. In reality the area wasn’t that large but she didn’t care. Each turn brought the possibility of coming face to face with Jose. Inside she felt that as soon as she did it’d be her last moment.
“Calm down,” she whispered to herself as she leapt over another wall. “I have to calm down.”
She held onto the bow in her hand and loaded it with arrows as she ran. She couldn’t completely lose it here. Not after Bano had entrusted Jose to her. And not after she’d promised everyone that she’d win this fight. If she didn’t she’d be letting everyone down.
She stared at the ruins a moment. Every urge in her body was to run away from the madness inside and to use this time to escape. Maybe she could come back with reinforcements. But she knew she couldn’t do that. She had to defeat Jose and put an end to his murderous rampage. That was her duty in this war.
Clair rushed through the ruins. She would hit Jose with an attack fast and then run away again. Maybe if she could pull off surprise attacks like that she’d be able to take him down.
As Clair rounded a corner an explosion sent her reeling backward. Jose flew through the dust and grabbed Clair by her shirt collar. The smile plastered on his face sent a chill through her body. “Looks like the game of hide and go seek is over,” Jose said as he launched Clair into a wall.
Her body ached in pain as she hit the ground. She had bounced off the wall that Jose had thrown her into but not without leaving a red stain that proved she’d been there. She groggily tried to pull herself to her feet but Jose was on her in a flash.
“So you’re still alive?” Jose asked her.
“Barely,” Clair answered honestly as she tried to concentrate on him. Her ice armor had protected her from an attack that would have otherwise finished her.
“That’s good,” Jose hissed as he smacked her across the face. “I’m going to take my time killing you, then!”
****
JJDomer hit the ground with a thud after he failed to dodge Dark Raptor’s punch. Both of them had been fighting for what had felt like an eternity at this point. Blood and sweat had thoroughly drenched them and ash from the nearby fires stuck to their bodies.
He smiled as he pulled himself back up. Dark Raptor was already upon him again swinging the blade attached to his arm and the knife in his other hand. JJDomer backed away from both attacks before he launched himself into the air high above him.
JJDomer shot a wind blast at him from his spot in the air. Dark Raptor dodged the attack and leapt up to meet him as he fell back toward the bridge. JJDomer moved past him swiftly and landed on the bridge a safe distance away.
Dark Raptor’s feet hit the ground and he charged toward JJDomer. He smiled as he watched him come back at him. He hadn’t expected Dark Raptor to be such a strong enemy. What had originally started as a match to the death had since changed for JJDomer. It was probably because it was the first time in a long time he’d had this much fun with his enemy but he was beginning to admire Dark Raptor’s will to beat him.
But that didn’t mean he could afford to lose. JJDomer switched his feet as Dark Raptor neared him and swung a kick towards his face. He ducked under JJDomer’s leg and he knew he had him.
JJDomer smashed a wind blast into Dark Raptor’s chest. His face froze as the explosion of air pressure sent him flying away from JJDomer. Dark Raptor’s body bounced down the highway that overlooked the city before bouncing into a parked bus.
“And with that,” JJDomer said as he stared at the spot where Dark Raptor had been flung. “It’s over.”
JJDomer leapt into the sky but felt a tug at his arm. The pain had felt now made sense as he saw a knife sticking out of his hand. His eyes followed the attached chain that lead over to where Dark Raptor was standing. He was smiling as he looked at JJDomer. His body was covered in fresh blood from where JJDomer had landed his most recent attack.
He was helplessly swung as Dark Raptor yanked the chain. He did his best to brace for it as his body collided into the bridge. No sooner had his body collided painfully with the bridge he felt it crumble underneath him. He opened his eyes to see what was going on and laughed through the pain. He’d smashed through the bridge and was now falling to his death.
He tried to blow a gust of air with his arms but he was completely spent. He had no energy left in him. “Sorry, Azarni,” he whispered as he plummeted toward the ground.
His body lurched and he screamed as he thought his arm was going to come off. “Ow!” he yelled out. He looked up and saw that the chain connected to his arm was holding him suspended through the air.
“No, not suspended,” JJDomer realized. He was being pulled back up through the hole he’d fallen through.
JJDomer was surprised how quickly Dark Raptor managed to drag him back to the bridge and drop him on the road. Dark Raptor fell down next to JJDomer and laughed for a moment. “Why didn’t you fly out of the hole?” Dark Raptor asked.
“Tch,” JJDomer said. He didn’t have the energy left to speak. Dark Raptor only laughed harder when he realized that.
****
“Do we have a plan or anything?” Knssquad asked Yoyo as they ran up the stairs of the Tower.
“Do we ever?” Yoyo asked as they continued up the stairs. “We’ll just kill the people that get in our way and stuff.”
“I had a feeling we didn’t have a plan,” Knssquad smiled. “So this is why I decided to come up with one.”
“Oh, this will be good,” Yoyo sighed as they made it up another flight of stairs.
“Wel-” Knssquad started and followed with a choking sound.
Yoyo turned her head and saw Knssquad being yanked into a room they had just passed. “What the?” she said as she ran back down.
Inside the room Knssquad was grasping at her neck and struggling on the floor. Before Yoyo could figure out what to do Knssquad had unbound the rope and was looking around the dark room wild eyed.
“Well done,” a woman spoke. “I was hoping some of you Eagle’s would make it my way.”
“SSS,” Yoyo said as she pulled out her swords.
Knssquad shook her head. “That hurt!” she yelled as she pulled out her Ice Cream scooper. “A lot!”
SSS laughed as she stepped forward and snapped her whip through the room. “What can I say?” she asked. “I got so excited that some of you came this way I had to get your attention.”
“Hey, Yoyo,” Knssquad said as she stepped forward. “New plan. I’ll beat SSS here and you do your own thing.”
“Are you sure?” Yoyo asked. “I mean-”
Knssquad laughed. “Go on ahead. I can tell you’re here to do your own thing, Yoyo. Go do what you have to do.”
Yoyo nodded and ran up the stairwell. “Well, that’s nice,” SSS smiled. “But I am pretty sure I’ll beat you then go after her myself. Or I think that‘s what I‘m supposed to say. But to be honest I‘m kind of tired. So I‘ll just beat you and then, I don‘t know, we can make some food and watch a movie or something.”
Knssquad looked at her puzzled. “Well, now I kind of want to lose. If it’s a good movie.”
SSS laughed at Knssquad. “Legend Of The Keys, bonus edition.”
“Wow, that sounds-” Knssquad shook her head. “Sorry, we have to fight and stuff. If I end up watching a movie with you while my friends are risking their lives, well I’ll look like a total jerk.”
“Too bad,” SSS smiled. “But this will probably be fun as well.”
****
Bano’s Kama cut through a soldier standing guard outside a hallway. He ran past him as the body fell to the ground and checked the room in every direction for enemies. When he saw that it was empty he relaxed and sighed loudly.
“Wow,” he whispered. “I have to hand it to TFK’s men they really know how to chase a guy.”
The sound of rockets echoed throughout the building. He could hear them being fired all around him as he looked out the sixth story window. From where he stood he could see red streaks flying out of the tower heading to their destinations across the city. Below him sparks were visible as he could make out the scene of the battle in the plaza he had just left. “Well, they seem to still be alive, at least,” Bano commented as he watched the window.
Bano jumped backward as he heard an explosion go off near him. He armed himself into a battle stance before he realized that he hadn’t been attack. A red object shot away from the window not too far from where he was. He noticed a door across the room and walked towards it. Inside a man was firmly holding onto a rocket launcher and had a pair of headphones over his ears. His concentration was on the scope in front of him.
Within seconds the man was unconscious and lying on the ground. Bano picked up the rocket and looked through the scope. “Interesting,” Bano smiled. “I can probably have some fun with this.”
****
JJDomer’s head lay against the stone bridge. He had been on the bridge for a while now but he had no energy left in him to move. He just stared at the sky above. A black sky from the smoke that filled the city and the cover of night that had come down on them.
Dark Raptor’s legs dangled off the bridge as he looked out at the city. He wasn’t feeling moved to do much at the moment, not that he really could. The view he had wasn’t exactly one he could enjoy but it was difficult not to stare at. Red fires littered the streets of WOTNOPOLIS and from where he sat on the high up bridge he could see a great deal of it. On the one hand it was always amazing to see just how vast WOTNOPOLIS was. But on the other it was striking to see it in such dismal shape.
Dark Raptor turned his gaze from the burning city and smiled at the guy laying on the bridge next to him. “You want to know what I think?” he asked him.
JJDomer closed his eyes. He didn’t know why but something about the whole situation made him want to laugh. Here he had been beaten and now he was going to be getting advice from his opponent.
“Sure, yeah, what do you think?” JJDomer said.
“Hm,” Dark Raptor muttered and sat quietly for a moment. “I don’t think your friend saved you so that you could try to kill Q. If anything, she probably saved you so that you could move on. She probably wanted you to give up on trying to kill him and maybe get away from all of this. If I were you, that’s what I’d do. Otherwise, she just died for nothing if you’re just living the same way you always did.”
JJDomer didn’t say a word as he covered his face in his hands. The two of them sat in silence for a while. “Yeah, you’re right,” JJDomer said.
“Haha, cool,” he laughed. Despite the wounds from his fight his smile wasn’t going to be diminished.
After a few minutes JJDomer pushed off the ground and got into a sitting position. He nodded at Dark Raptor. “So, I have a question,” he started. “Do you really think those guys can stop TFK?”
“Are you kidding me?” Dark Raptor shook his head. “If it’s those guys, TFK doesn’t stand a chance.”
****
“Cover that side better!” Zergio yelled to the men on the other side of his jeep. He could only shoot so many of TFK’s soldiers. His order had little effect as more men poured in from his left.
“I said cover that side better!” Zergio looked over his shoulder. His voice caught as he watched the two men that had been wrestling off soldiers fall to the ground. Blood splattered on the ground from where they had been riddled with bullets.
“Shoot, pull back!” Zergio yelled to the few men still around him. “We’re going to meet up by Jz!”
They dashed across the open parking lot towards JZ’s position. He was holed up behind three wrecked cars. Zergio felt himself lift into the air in his final few steps.
He hit the ground and rolled onto his shoulder. A grenade had gone off and taken down another man. “What’s going on?” Jz asked. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We’re all that’s left, we’ve completely lost that position,” Zergio said.
Jz’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Shoot. We’re losing a lot quicker than I expected.”
“No kidding,” Zergio said as he shot a soldier.
“How much longer can we hold out here?” Jz asked. He looked out onto the field. Despite their resistance several helicopters still hovered in the sky and men were still streaming towards them.
“If we can pull off five more minutes for Clair I think we’ll be doing pretty good,” Zergio said glumly.
JZ closed his eyes and sighed. “Then let’s give it all we got. Since you’re going to die here anyway boys don’t hold back!”
The small group jumped in surprise when they saw one of the helicopters explode. “Good job, Jz.”
“It wasn’t me?” JZ said. Another explosion sent a jeep flying into the air in flames. Another rocket smashed into a helicopter. The men that had been rushing toward their position turned around in confusion.
“What the heck is going on?” Zergio asked. “Then again, who cares! Shoot them up!”
The small group started firing back on TFK’s men as more explosions rocked their side. “Look up there!” Jz yelled and pointed towards TFK’s Tower. One of the helicopters had pointed a spotlight at the tower in the direction of where the rockets had come.
The group cheered in unison as they recognized their hero holding a rocket launcher. “It’s Bano!” they screamed.
Bano ducked as he heard bullets start to land near him. “Well, that was fun,” he laughed to himself. He launched another rocket from his launcher and heard an empty click.
“Ah, seems I’m out of ammo,” Bano said. He stood up and looked down on the group not so far away.
“I hope you guys can handle the rest! I’m going to stop TFK’s crazy plan and beat TFK! Hold out, guys!” Bano yelled.
“Is he saying something up there?” Zergio asked as he watched Bano talking and waving his hands.
“I can’t hear him at all,” Jz replied. “How embarrassing. He just saved us and looked so cool, too.”
“Let’s just all shout a, ‘Hooray,’ and pretend we heard him and were inspired. It’ll make him feel better and stuff,” Zergio said.
“Hooray!” they cheered from below.
Bano smiled as he heard their shouting from the plaza. He moved toward the staircase and decided that he’d see if he could cause more trouble for TFK.
****
Jose picked Clair up from the wall he’d just smashed her into and laughed. “Having fun?” he said. “I know I am!”
Clair wiped the blood out of her eyes and glared at him. Her ice armor had kept her alive during his endless barrage of attacks but she knew it wouldn’t last. Before she could even begin to think of an attack she was being launched into another direction.
“As you can tell,” Jose smiled. “My Amplified form has made me much stronger and faster. And you were already no match for me. But what’s truly great about my Amplified form is it makes my body indestructible to attacks.”
Jose stood firm and just smiled at her. “Try it again. Try to pierce me like you did before.”
She shot an arrow at his heart without another word needed. She gasped when she saw the arrow explode when it hit him rather than open up his chest. She watched as the pieces of ice hit the ground.
Jose cackled loudly for several moments. He fell to his knees as he pointed at her. “You thought you had a chance, didn’t you?” he giggled. “No! You’ll never have a chance.”
Clair wiped more blood from her face. Despite the fact her ice armor had been in tact she had open injuries all over her body. “Mm, that blood looks fantastic,” Jose said.
Clair jumped back and shot an arrow at him but he dodged it and grabbed her by the arm. His hand smacked coldly across her cheek as she resisted his grip. He pulled his hand back and stared at it happily.
“Blood,” he grinned as he looked at his hand. His smile widened as he looked at it and he looked at Clair. “Your blood is pretty.”
Her fist smashed into his face causing him to stumble backwards. His grip loosened on her arm and she immediately snatched her arm free. She held her hand as she dashed away from him and inwardly moaned. He had definitely broken it just by holding onto her.
“Frick, I can’t do this,” Clair muttered as she ran back into the maze. “This is impossible. Impossible.”
Jose was furious as he ran through the maze after her. “You! Will! Die!” he screamed repeatedly as he searched for.
She found a secluded spot and held her hand over the injured one. After a moment she had regained movement in that arm thanks to her healing. “His loudness is working to my advantage at least,” she whispered to herself as she listened for him in the ruins. “He can’t sneak up on me again like this.”
Clair leaned her head back searching for an answer in how to fight him. “He’s stronger than me, faster than me, and he can’t be injured. I am so screwed.”
She stared at the spot where her arm was healing. “Or maybe,” she pondered.
“Pretty, pretty, blood, where are you?” Jose asked. Clair shivered as she realized how close he was. She created her ice bow and waited silently for him to pass by. If the element of surprise was with her she might be able to strike before he killed her like he had been promising.
The instant Clair saw Jose her arrows launched. He jumped back and the arrows passed over his head. “For someone who can‘t be hurt you dodge a lot,” she said as she moved in on him. She had created two small ice knives and knew what she was aiming for.
“Or try to,” she said as she lobbed the first knife into Jose’s eye. Before she could move the second one she was flung back by Jose’s elbow and slammed through a wall. Blood coughed out of her mouth but she couldn’t help but feel a slight triumph in her attack.
Jose’s shrieks echoed through the ruins as he ripped the knife out of his eye. He had stopped forming words and was now just screeching out noises.
He held one hand to his eye as he glared at Clair. “You!” he screamed and Clair knew it was her chance to run. She stood up but immediately fell forward. A sharp pain in her leg told her that something was wrong.
She looked back to discover her own ice knife had been thrown at her. One hand tried to pull it out of her leg as the other tried to create another ice weapon. Before she could do either Jose had grabbed her by the neck and lifted her in the air. Both arms reached out and grabbed his arm in an attempt to get free.
“Tch,” Jose said as he looked at her. Clair’s world flipped upside down as he hammered her into the ground.
“Goodbye,” he said as he looked over her and punched her in the stomach.
Clair looked up at Jose and smiled. “Goodbye, Jose. It worked.”
Jose opened his mouth to ask what she meant but was stopped by a dull sensation in his arm. He looked at it slowly before realizing that he could no longer bend his fingers. “It hurts!” Jose screamed in agony as he dropped to the ground.
“That final punch definitely would have been enough to kill me, normally,” Clair said. “So I know that my attack succeeded.”
“What attack?” Jose asked as he rolled his arm against the ground. His entire arm had become numb.
“I froze your blood. I am thankful, though, that you grabbed me where you’d cut your hand on my arrow earlier. It made it numb so that you didn’t really realize what was happening there. I applied such a powerful cold force there that with every heartbeat you’re slowly freezing your body,” Clair explained. “It’s similar to what I do to heal people, except if I did an extremely bad job of it.”
Jose’s screams of pain told her that he definitely couldn’t understand what she was saying. She listened to him move in torment along the ground as his blood froze over. Every once in a while he would pound the ground but it was becoming less frequent.
She closed her eyes. Her entire body was crushed but she had stopped Jose. The first time she had seen him he murdered countless people before her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel that she’d done those people justice. And all the people he’d slaughtered today.
Finally Jose stopped moving and screaming. She knew she’d never get those sounds out of her head but at least she could relax. “Well,” Clair thought. “Relax as much as one can with the sounds of gunfire and rockets not too far away.”
Her eyes opened wide as a quiet whisper called out. “Please, I did everything you asked, TFK. Save me. Please. Dad. Please. I killed. Didn’t I make you happy? I did it, please…”
Clair stared at him for a long time in horror. He never moved again.
“Why’d you pick this body?” TFK said as he looked at the man inside the glass tube.
“No real reason,” Venomu motioned with the back of his hand. “He was just a subject I had test ready. It really means nothing to me.”
TFK nodded and looked back at him. “Mhm. I’m sure you put no thought into who you chose for this experiment at all.”
“What if I found someone really annoying for it so that I could torture you?” Venomu laughed.
“I hope you didn’t,” TFK groaned. “You’re already plenty annoying.”
“So kind,” Venomu rolled his eyes as he pressed a button.
The man fell out of the test tube. He blinked his eyes rapidly as he looked around the room. “What’s going on? Where am I? Who are you?”
“You were, oh, I don’t really remember the name. We’re just going to call you Jose, sound good?” Venomu said to the man. He pointed at TFK and smiled, “And that’s your new jerk of a boss.”
“Shut up for a moment, Venomu,” TFK said. He walked over to Jose and looked at him. “Are you scared of me?”
“No,” Jose shrugged as he stared up at the giant.
“Good,” TFK smiled. “Since we created you, you’re now my son, Jose. You live only to kill for me and you love to destroy. If you do that you’ll make me happy. Understand?”
Jose stared at him for a moment before smiling. “I can do that.”
****
Yoyo was growing irritated. “What’s going on here?” she asked as she swung her blades in a circular motion around her. Each person that had surrounded her fell in a pile of blood.
“I have no idea,” KKQ said as she fired her pistol into the group of people.
Yoyo felt a person land behind her and pointed her swords to her right and left. “What do you think, Knssquad?”
The person that landed behind her grabbed a man and slammed him into the ground. “Cover me while I take a look at this guy,” Knssquad said.
“Got it,” Yoyo said as she sliced her blades in different directions. Smoke wafted off her sword and created a protective bubble around Knssquad and the struggling man she’d shoved to the ground.
KKQ blasted a man to the ground and looked over at the doorway. It didn’t seem like there was any end to the amount of people coming out of there. “We’re so close,” she said. “It seems a shame that we’re being blocked here.”
Knssquad hopped out of the shadow and knocked a man standing next to Yoyo to the ground. “So,” she began. “I think these people have been drugged by TFK. These people are definitely addicts that he’s using to fend off intruders. Kind of like keeping starved watchdogs except…”
“Unbelievable,” Yoyo whispered. She pointed her lightning blade toward the doorway and shot a blast of lightning at it. Smoke immediately moved off her other blade and created two separate walls.
“Wow,” KKQ said as she stared at the pathway Yoyo had created. “That’d be really freaking scary if that wasn’t on our side.”
“Amazing,” Knssquad smiled. “Let’s go!”
The group charged through the pathway into the next room Yoyo had formed with smokey walls on each side of them. Yoyo’s lightning blade lit the way as they ran through the dark room.
“Sad,” Knssquad whispered as she stepped over the bodies that Yoyo’s blade had blasted.
The group reached the other side of the room and found a wall with no doorway. “The door could be anywhere,” KKQ said. Yoyo’s smoke wall was beginning to deteriorate around them. “We’re probably going to have to fight our way through this room to fight it.”
“If we do that we’ll all end up dead,” Knssquad said as she tossed an apple at the wall. “Everybody duck!”
The wall exploded from Knssquad’s grenade. Yoyo’s smoke wall crashed after the explosion and the group of people began to close in on them.
Knssquad dashed through the hole she’d created in the wall. Yoyo followed behind her. Death and Dei’s remaining men climbed through the exit. Bodies started to crawl through the hole in the wall towards them.
“They’re coming through!” Knssquad said as she beat them with her banana bat. “Where are KKQ and Death and Dei?”
Bodies clambered through the hole at a chance to grab one of them. The small group did their best to push them back as they waited for the others to show up. “You don’t think that they?” Knssquad asked.
Bodies flew in all directions as KKQ fell through the hole. She shielded her eyes as she tripped into the bright, fluorescent hallway carrying two people under her arms.
“Thanks,” Death said as KKQ laid them both down.
“We owe you one,” Dei followed up.
“I told you they were fine,” Knssquad patted Yoyo on the back.
“You did no such thing!” Yoyo snapped as her sword blasted people away from the wall.
“Hey,” KKQ said as she looked over at Yoyo and Knssquad. “Go on ahead from here. Death and Dei aren’t ready to fight again and need to take a break. And we’re wasting too much time on this. So go on ahead.”
“No,” Yoyo said simply.
“This group is too much for all of us to handle. You don’t need to try and take them by yourselves,” Knssquad shrugged.
KKQ shook her head and laughed. “Sorry, but you Eagle gangsters are the reason we’ve made it this far. And you guys are the ones we’re all counting on to stop TFK. We’ll stay here and hold back these people. Once we finish here we’ll catch up with you! I promise.”
Yoyo stared at KKQ for a moment and nodded. “Got it. Don’t die here.”
She started running down the hallway. “Hey, wait up!” Knssquad yelled. “Geez. Good luck guys!”
****
JZ landed next to Zergio. The man firing guns from behind a car nodded at his friend. “There’s so many of them,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to hold out after all.”
JZ sighed loudly as he tried to catch his breath. He had just run from one side of the battlefield to the other. “I just came over here to warn you that we’re not going to last much longer on that side,” he pointed to where he’d come from.
“We’re not doing a lot better over here,” Zergio said as his bullets went through the helm of a helicopter. He smiled as he watched it lose control and fall to the Earth. A wall of fire shot into the air where it landed.
“I know,” JZ stood up. He focused on a nearby jeep filled with TFK’s men firing at them. He lifted it into the air and shoved it into another jeep parked nearby. The explosion rung out and he smiled.
A pain in his side caused him to drop to his knees. “You alright, Jz?” Zergio asked him.
The man was drenched in sweat and winced as he grabbed his side. “Yeah, I’ll be okay,” he said.
Zergio knew better than to press on him in their situation. “Just be careful,” he said. “And if you see any ammo or weapons let me know. I’m almost out here.”
JZ nodded as he raced away from where Zergio was hidden. He shook his head as he watched him disappear into the dust of the battle. “I really hope the Eagle gang can pull this off.”
The sound of something exploding behind him pulled his attention away. An immense pressure came over him as he looked over his shoulder toward the ruined building. He couldn‘t tell what was going on but he knew that something powerful had emerged in Clair‘s fight. And something evil.
****
Clair hit the ground and rolled back to her feet. Bricks had scattered around her from where Jose’s attack had hit the wall behind where she’d been standing a second before. She had narrowly dodged another attack of his and she was quickly becoming exhausted.
Jose pulled his hand out of the wall and kicked his feet off the ground. Clair jumped to the side and crashed into a wall. Behind her Jose smashed through another wall and laughed loudly. “Oh! This is definitely how it should be!” he yelled.
Clair didn’t have time to think as she leapt over a wall and further into the ruins away from him. She didn’t have a plan as much as an instinct that she needed to get away. Every part of her told her that if she stayed near Jose she would die. She had to put distance between him and her.
She didn’t like to be near her opponents. She preferred the distance she could have in fighting with a bow and arrow. It allowed her to judge and decide how to take down an enemy. And it gave her plenty of time to run away or dodge an attack if she needed to. She had never intended to run away from a fight but it was good for her to know that she wasn’t trapped.
The ruins were beginning to feel like a maze to her. In reality the area wasn’t that large but she didn’t care. Each turn brought the possibility of coming face to face with Jose. Inside she felt that as soon as she did it’d be her last moment.
“Calm down,” she whispered to herself as she leapt over another wall. “I have to calm down.”
She held onto the bow in her hand and loaded it with arrows as she ran. She couldn’t completely lose it here. Not after Bano had entrusted Jose to her. And not after she’d promised everyone that she’d win this fight. If she didn’t she’d be letting everyone down.
She stared at the ruins a moment. Every urge in her body was to run away from the madness inside and to use this time to escape. Maybe she could come back with reinforcements. But she knew she couldn’t do that. She had to defeat Jose and put an end to his murderous rampage. That was her duty in this war.
Clair rushed through the ruins. She would hit Jose with an attack fast and then run away again. Maybe if she could pull off surprise attacks like that she’d be able to take him down.
As Clair rounded a corner an explosion sent her reeling backward. Jose flew through the dust and grabbed Clair by her shirt collar. The smile plastered on his face sent a chill through her body. “Looks like the game of hide and go seek is over,” Jose said as he launched Clair into a wall.
Her body ached in pain as she hit the ground. She had bounced off the wall that Jose had thrown her into but not without leaving a red stain that proved she’d been there. She groggily tried to pull herself to her feet but Jose was on her in a flash.
“So you’re still alive?” Jose asked her.
“Barely,” Clair answered honestly as she tried to concentrate on him. Her ice armor had protected her from an attack that would have otherwise finished her.
“That’s good,” Jose hissed as he smacked her across the face. “I’m going to take my time killing you, then!”
****
JJDomer hit the ground with a thud after he failed to dodge Dark Raptor’s punch. Both of them had been fighting for what had felt like an eternity at this point. Blood and sweat had thoroughly drenched them and ash from the nearby fires stuck to their bodies.
He smiled as he pulled himself back up. Dark Raptor was already upon him again swinging the blade attached to his arm and the knife in his other hand. JJDomer backed away from both attacks before he launched himself into the air high above him.
JJDomer shot a wind blast at him from his spot in the air. Dark Raptor dodged the attack and leapt up to meet him as he fell back toward the bridge. JJDomer moved past him swiftly and landed on the bridge a safe distance away.
Dark Raptor’s feet hit the ground and he charged toward JJDomer. He smiled as he watched him come back at him. He hadn’t expected Dark Raptor to be such a strong enemy. What had originally started as a match to the death had since changed for JJDomer. It was probably because it was the first time in a long time he’d had this much fun with his enemy but he was beginning to admire Dark Raptor’s will to beat him.
But that didn’t mean he could afford to lose. JJDomer switched his feet as Dark Raptor neared him and swung a kick towards his face. He ducked under JJDomer’s leg and he knew he had him.
JJDomer smashed a wind blast into Dark Raptor’s chest. His face froze as the explosion of air pressure sent him flying away from JJDomer. Dark Raptor’s body bounced down the highway that overlooked the city before bouncing into a parked bus.
“And with that,” JJDomer said as he stared at the spot where Dark Raptor had been flung. “It’s over.”
JJDomer leapt into the sky but felt a tug at his arm. The pain had felt now made sense as he saw a knife sticking out of his hand. His eyes followed the attached chain that lead over to where Dark Raptor was standing. He was smiling as he looked at JJDomer. His body was covered in fresh blood from where JJDomer had landed his most recent attack.
He was helplessly swung as Dark Raptor yanked the chain. He did his best to brace for it as his body collided into the bridge. No sooner had his body collided painfully with the bridge he felt it crumble underneath him. He opened his eyes to see what was going on and laughed through the pain. He’d smashed through the bridge and was now falling to his death.
He tried to blow a gust of air with his arms but he was completely spent. He had no energy left in him. “Sorry, Azarni,” he whispered as he plummeted toward the ground.
His body lurched and he screamed as he thought his arm was going to come off. “Ow!” he yelled out. He looked up and saw that the chain connected to his arm was holding him suspended through the air.
“No, not suspended,” JJDomer realized. He was being pulled back up through the hole he’d fallen through.
JJDomer was surprised how quickly Dark Raptor managed to drag him back to the bridge and drop him on the road. Dark Raptor fell down next to JJDomer and laughed for a moment. “Why didn’t you fly out of the hole?” Dark Raptor asked.
“Tch,” JJDomer said. He didn’t have the energy left to speak. Dark Raptor only laughed harder when he realized that.
****
“Do we have a plan or anything?” Knssquad asked Yoyo as they ran up the stairs of the Tower.
“Do we ever?” Yoyo asked as they continued up the stairs. “We’ll just kill the people that get in our way and stuff.”
“I had a feeling we didn’t have a plan,” Knssquad smiled. “So this is why I decided to come up with one.”
“Oh, this will be good,” Yoyo sighed as they made it up another flight of stairs.
“Wel-” Knssquad started and followed with a choking sound.
Yoyo turned her head and saw Knssquad being yanked into a room they had just passed. “What the?” she said as she ran back down.
Inside the room Knssquad was grasping at her neck and struggling on the floor. Before Yoyo could figure out what to do Knssquad had unbound the rope and was looking around the dark room wild eyed.
“Well done,” a woman spoke. “I was hoping some of you Eagle’s would make it my way.”
“SSS,” Yoyo said as she pulled out her swords.
Knssquad shook her head. “That hurt!” she yelled as she pulled out her Ice Cream scooper. “A lot!”
SSS laughed as she stepped forward and snapped her whip through the room. “What can I say?” she asked. “I got so excited that some of you came this way I had to get your attention.”
“Hey, Yoyo,” Knssquad said as she stepped forward. “New plan. I’ll beat SSS here and you do your own thing.”
“Are you sure?” Yoyo asked. “I mean-”
Knssquad laughed. “Go on ahead. I can tell you’re here to do your own thing, Yoyo. Go do what you have to do.”
Yoyo nodded and ran up the stairwell. “Well, that’s nice,” SSS smiled. “But I am pretty sure I’ll beat you then go after her myself. Or I think that‘s what I‘m supposed to say. But to be honest I‘m kind of tired. So I‘ll just beat you and then, I don‘t know, we can make some food and watch a movie or something.”
Knssquad looked at her puzzled. “Well, now I kind of want to lose. If it’s a good movie.”
SSS laughed at Knssquad. “Legend Of The Keys, bonus edition.”
“Wow, that sounds-” Knssquad shook her head. “Sorry, we have to fight and stuff. If I end up watching a movie with you while my friends are risking their lives, well I’ll look like a total jerk.”
“Too bad,” SSS smiled. “But this will probably be fun as well.”
****
Bano’s Kama cut through a soldier standing guard outside a hallway. He ran past him as the body fell to the ground and checked the room in every direction for enemies. When he saw that it was empty he relaxed and sighed loudly.
“Wow,” he whispered. “I have to hand it to TFK’s men they really know how to chase a guy.”
The sound of rockets echoed throughout the building. He could hear them being fired all around him as he looked out the sixth story window. From where he stood he could see red streaks flying out of the tower heading to their destinations across the city. Below him sparks were visible as he could make out the scene of the battle in the plaza he had just left. “Well, they seem to still be alive, at least,” Bano commented as he watched the window.
Bano jumped backward as he heard an explosion go off near him. He armed himself into a battle stance before he realized that he hadn’t been attack. A red object shot away from the window not too far from where he was. He noticed a door across the room and walked towards it. Inside a man was firmly holding onto a rocket launcher and had a pair of headphones over his ears. His concentration was on the scope in front of him.
Within seconds the man was unconscious and lying on the ground. Bano picked up the rocket and looked through the scope. “Interesting,” Bano smiled. “I can probably have some fun with this.”
****
JJDomer’s head lay against the stone bridge. He had been on the bridge for a while now but he had no energy left in him to move. He just stared at the sky above. A black sky from the smoke that filled the city and the cover of night that had come down on them.
Dark Raptor’s legs dangled off the bridge as he looked out at the city. He wasn’t feeling moved to do much at the moment, not that he really could. The view he had wasn’t exactly one he could enjoy but it was difficult not to stare at. Red fires littered the streets of WOTNOPOLIS and from where he sat on the high up bridge he could see a great deal of it. On the one hand it was always amazing to see just how vast WOTNOPOLIS was. But on the other it was striking to see it in such dismal shape.
Dark Raptor turned his gaze from the burning city and smiled at the guy laying on the bridge next to him. “You want to know what I think?” he asked him.
JJDomer closed his eyes. He didn’t know why but something about the whole situation made him want to laugh. Here he had been beaten and now he was going to be getting advice from his opponent.
“Sure, yeah, what do you think?” JJDomer said.
“Hm,” Dark Raptor muttered and sat quietly for a moment. “I don’t think your friend saved you so that you could try to kill Q. If anything, she probably saved you so that you could move on. She probably wanted you to give up on trying to kill him and maybe get away from all of this. If I were you, that’s what I’d do. Otherwise, she just died for nothing if you’re just living the same way you always did.”
JJDomer didn’t say a word as he covered his face in his hands. The two of them sat in silence for a while. “Yeah, you’re right,” JJDomer said.
“Haha, cool,” he laughed. Despite the wounds from his fight his smile wasn’t going to be diminished.
After a few minutes JJDomer pushed off the ground and got into a sitting position. He nodded at Dark Raptor. “So, I have a question,” he started. “Do you really think those guys can stop TFK?”
“Are you kidding me?” Dark Raptor shook his head. “If it’s those guys, TFK doesn’t stand a chance.”
****
“Cover that side better!” Zergio yelled to the men on the other side of his jeep. He could only shoot so many of TFK’s soldiers. His order had little effect as more men poured in from his left.
“I said cover that side better!” Zergio looked over his shoulder. His voice caught as he watched the two men that had been wrestling off soldiers fall to the ground. Blood splattered on the ground from where they had been riddled with bullets.
“Shoot, pull back!” Zergio yelled to the few men still around him. “We’re going to meet up by Jz!”
They dashed across the open parking lot towards JZ’s position. He was holed up behind three wrecked cars. Zergio felt himself lift into the air in his final few steps.
He hit the ground and rolled onto his shoulder. A grenade had gone off and taken down another man. “What’s going on?” Jz asked. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We’re all that’s left, we’ve completely lost that position,” Zergio said.
Jz’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Shoot. We’re losing a lot quicker than I expected.”
“No kidding,” Zergio said as he shot a soldier.
“How much longer can we hold out here?” Jz asked. He looked out onto the field. Despite their resistance several helicopters still hovered in the sky and men were still streaming towards them.
“If we can pull off five more minutes for Clair I think we’ll be doing pretty good,” Zergio said glumly.
JZ closed his eyes and sighed. “Then let’s give it all we got. Since you’re going to die here anyway boys don’t hold back!”
The small group jumped in surprise when they saw one of the helicopters explode. “Good job, Jz.”
“It wasn’t me?” JZ said. Another explosion sent a jeep flying into the air in flames. Another rocket smashed into a helicopter. The men that had been rushing toward their position turned around in confusion.
“What the heck is going on?” Zergio asked. “Then again, who cares! Shoot them up!”
The small group started firing back on TFK’s men as more explosions rocked their side. “Look up there!” Jz yelled and pointed towards TFK’s Tower. One of the helicopters had pointed a spotlight at the tower in the direction of where the rockets had come.
The group cheered in unison as they recognized their hero holding a rocket launcher. “It’s Bano!” they screamed.
Bano ducked as he heard bullets start to land near him. “Well, that was fun,” he laughed to himself. He launched another rocket from his launcher and heard an empty click.
“Ah, seems I’m out of ammo,” Bano said. He stood up and looked down on the group not so far away.
“I hope you guys can handle the rest! I’m going to stop TFK’s crazy plan and beat TFK! Hold out, guys!” Bano yelled.
“Is he saying something up there?” Zergio asked as he watched Bano talking and waving his hands.
“I can’t hear him at all,” Jz replied. “How embarrassing. He just saved us and looked so cool, too.”
“Let’s just all shout a, ‘Hooray,’ and pretend we heard him and were inspired. It’ll make him feel better and stuff,” Zergio said.
“Hooray!” they cheered from below.
Bano smiled as he heard their shouting from the plaza. He moved toward the staircase and decided that he’d see if he could cause more trouble for TFK.
****
Jose picked Clair up from the wall he’d just smashed her into and laughed. “Having fun?” he said. “I know I am!”
Clair wiped the blood out of her eyes and glared at him. Her ice armor had kept her alive during his endless barrage of attacks but she knew it wouldn’t last. Before she could even begin to think of an attack she was being launched into another direction.
“As you can tell,” Jose smiled. “My Amplified form has made me much stronger and faster. And you were already no match for me. But what’s truly great about my Amplified form is it makes my body indestructible to attacks.”
Jose stood firm and just smiled at her. “Try it again. Try to pierce me like you did before.”
She shot an arrow at his heart without another word needed. She gasped when she saw the arrow explode when it hit him rather than open up his chest. She watched as the pieces of ice hit the ground.
Jose cackled loudly for several moments. He fell to his knees as he pointed at her. “You thought you had a chance, didn’t you?” he giggled. “No! You’ll never have a chance.”
Clair wiped more blood from her face. Despite the fact her ice armor had been in tact she had open injuries all over her body. “Mm, that blood looks fantastic,” Jose said.
Clair jumped back and shot an arrow at him but he dodged it and grabbed her by the arm. His hand smacked coldly across her cheek as she resisted his grip. He pulled his hand back and stared at it happily.
“Blood,” he grinned as he looked at his hand. His smile widened as he looked at it and he looked at Clair. “Your blood is pretty.”
Her fist smashed into his face causing him to stumble backwards. His grip loosened on her arm and she immediately snatched her arm free. She held her hand as she dashed away from him and inwardly moaned. He had definitely broken it just by holding onto her.
“Frick, I can’t do this,” Clair muttered as she ran back into the maze. “This is impossible. Impossible.”
Jose was furious as he ran through the maze after her. “You! Will! Die!” he screamed repeatedly as he searched for.
She found a secluded spot and held her hand over the injured one. After a moment she had regained movement in that arm thanks to her healing. “His loudness is working to my advantage at least,” she whispered to herself as she listened for him in the ruins. “He can’t sneak up on me again like this.”
Clair leaned her head back searching for an answer in how to fight him. “He’s stronger than me, faster than me, and he can’t be injured. I am so screwed.”
She stared at the spot where her arm was healing. “Or maybe,” she pondered.
“Pretty, pretty, blood, where are you?” Jose asked. Clair shivered as she realized how close he was. She created her ice bow and waited silently for him to pass by. If the element of surprise was with her she might be able to strike before he killed her like he had been promising.
The instant Clair saw Jose her arrows launched. He jumped back and the arrows passed over his head. “For someone who can‘t be hurt you dodge a lot,” she said as she moved in on him. She had created two small ice knives and knew what she was aiming for.
“Or try to,” she said as she lobbed the first knife into Jose’s eye. Before she could move the second one she was flung back by Jose’s elbow and slammed through a wall. Blood coughed out of her mouth but she couldn’t help but feel a slight triumph in her attack.
Jose’s shrieks echoed through the ruins as he ripped the knife out of his eye. He had stopped forming words and was now just screeching out noises.
He held one hand to his eye as he glared at Clair. “You!” he screamed and Clair knew it was her chance to run. She stood up but immediately fell forward. A sharp pain in her leg told her that something was wrong.
She looked back to discover her own ice knife had been thrown at her. One hand tried to pull it out of her leg as the other tried to create another ice weapon. Before she could do either Jose had grabbed her by the neck and lifted her in the air. Both arms reached out and grabbed his arm in an attempt to get free.
“Tch,” Jose said as he looked at her. Clair’s world flipped upside down as he hammered her into the ground.
“Goodbye,” he said as he looked over her and punched her in the stomach.
Clair looked up at Jose and smiled. “Goodbye, Jose. It worked.”
Jose opened his mouth to ask what she meant but was stopped by a dull sensation in his arm. He looked at it slowly before realizing that he could no longer bend his fingers. “It hurts!” Jose screamed in agony as he dropped to the ground.
“That final punch definitely would have been enough to kill me, normally,” Clair said. “So I know that my attack succeeded.”
“What attack?” Jose asked as he rolled his arm against the ground. His entire arm had become numb.
“I froze your blood. I am thankful, though, that you grabbed me where you’d cut your hand on my arrow earlier. It made it numb so that you didn’t really realize what was happening there. I applied such a powerful cold force there that with every heartbeat you’re slowly freezing your body,” Clair explained. “It’s similar to what I do to heal people, except if I did an extremely bad job of it.”
Jose’s screams of pain told her that he definitely couldn’t understand what she was saying. She listened to him move in torment along the ground as his blood froze over. Every once in a while he would pound the ground but it was becoming less frequent.
She closed her eyes. Her entire body was crushed but she had stopped Jose. The first time she had seen him he murdered countless people before her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel that she’d done those people justice. And all the people he’d slaughtered today.
Finally Jose stopped moving and screaming. She knew she’d never get those sounds out of her head but at least she could relax. “Well,” Clair thought. “Relax as much as one can with the sounds of gunfire and rockets not too far away.”
Her eyes opened wide as a quiet whisper called out. “Please, I did everything you asked, TFK. Save me. Please. Dad. Please. I killed. Didn’t I make you happy? I did it, please…”
Clair stared at him for a long time in horror. He never moved again.
Last edited by quater on Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:21 pm; edited 1 time in total
I think that's how I'd have to fight... because I'm not a fighter... I is a healer. However, don't mess with my friends... I (apparently) have a killer glare. 
