by WOTNOPOLIS: 33
“You coming?” Draco asked SSS as they walked through the doors of the new Tower. She had been staring at its massive size in awe. Even though she’d seen construction on it and was aware of how big it would end up being, that didn’t make the final sight anything less to behold.
She soon followed TFK and Draco into the lobby. TFK didn’t glance her way as he walked over the shining tiles of his new lobby and threw two heavy metal doors. The elevator, one of three, closed behind him while Draco and SSS were made to wait in the lobby. The two of them were used to waiting on him to go ahead so this wasn’t unusual for the two of them.
“We’re not allowed into his office?” she asked him as she remembered TFK saying it earlier. “Geez, some boyfriend.”
“Haha, it’s not really any different then where we used to be in that way,” Draco shrugged. “He likes to keep to himself, you know.”
“Great,” SSS’s eyes wondered around the lobby. She couldn’t believe how many people TFK now had working for him as they walked past the two of them carrying suitcases. “Still, this is amazing.”
“Mhm,” he agreed. “I hear he’s going to be hiring a new a guy to add to the old guard.”
“There will be three of us protecting him now? Why so many people?” she asked as the doors to the elevator opened up.
“He’s a big shot,” Draco said as the two of them stepped into the elevator. “Maybe it’s a power thing. Keeping strong people by your side makes you strong. Not that he isn’t already a beast.”
“Seriously,” SSS sighed as she looked around the orange walls of the spacious elevator. “He should be protecting us if anything.”
“Agreed,” the doors to the elevator closed and the two of them were soon riding up . “I hear the new guy’s a real freak show, too.”
After a moment of idling the doors to the elevator opened up on a middle level floor. “Why are we stopping here?” she asked. A feeling she had known for a while but had ignored creeped up on her.
“I’m sorry,” Draco paused. “It’s just that TFK wants to keep the upper floor to himself; so he’d rather you stay down here. He was very adamant about this kind of thing.”
“I see,” she said as she stepped off the elevator. For a moment she looked around the office floor. There were a few people at desks and she saw a desk labeled, ‘SSS‘. “It was more fun at the old place.”
“Sorry,” Draco said as the doors shut behind him and he continued riding up. SSS walked over to her desk and shook her head.
****
The van had nearly reached TFK‘s Tower as it cruised down the road. The sounds of battle could be heard from the van and they caught flashes of light from the fighting. It had left them feeling anxious. “That’s probably our group,” Little Shiro said as they heard shouting become audible. “Should we help them?”
“I want to,” Q said. “But I’m not sure that we should. We need to get inside TFK’s Tower and they’re fighting outside of it. They could even be trying to do a diversion for us or something.”
“I think we should aim for the Tower, too,” Amaterasu agreed. “If his forces are somewhere else we shouldn’t miss that opportunity.”
“On the other hand,” Q said as they moved closer to the Tower. “If they’re losing the battle and we could be the difference between victory and defeat it’s hard to stomach leaving them behind.”
“I wish I hadn’t destroyed my radio,” Shiro regretted. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“I’m sorry,” Titan interrupted their discussion. “You guys are talking like you have a choice in the matter. I told you I’d take you to TFK’s Tower and we’re not stopping until we get to TFK’s Tower.”
“For some reason I feel like that doesn’t bode well for us,” Shiro muttered.
****
Two bullets fired in Bano’s direction. He leapt through the air towards his opponents. His blades sliced through the gut of one and he kicked the body towards the other. Both men crashed out the window dozens of stories above the city. “And goodbye,” Bano waved. Each floor had been getting progressively rougher as TFK’s men began to realize he was taking them on. And he was getting tired from fighting with all of them.
“Oh well,” Bano said. “I’m getting closer.”
He had noticed a while ago that not every floor had men firing rockets on it. He also realized that the bazooka groups stopped way short of the top floors. It wouldn’t be much longer before he’d cleared TFK’s Tower. Then all he needed to do was find The First Knight.
A loud noise interrupted his thoughts. In fact, it wasn’t just one noise. It was multiple noises and they were growing louder. As the noise continued to break his concentration he realized what it was and ducked behind an office wall. The room had a large set of open windows and a row of cubicles in the middle that he was now hiding behind.
Bano felt the room grow darker as the windows were blocked by large shadows. The sound of the hovering helicopters was replaced by the sound of gunfire as machine guns ripped into the room he’d been standing in. He dropped to the ground as the flimsy wall he was standing by splintered into pieces.
“Shoot,” he whispered as he crawled against the carpet. He hadn’t planned on taking a fleet of helicopters down. Something caught his eye from across the room and he smiled. Bullets landed all around him as he dived for the large, cylindrical object. He aimed it at the helicopters in front of him and laughed.
“Wow,” he could see the pilot of the first helicopter clearly. There were two more behind him but he didn’t have time to worry about those. He clicked the trigger of the bazooka and the helicopter in front of him burst into flames. Bano whooped when he saw the machine swing back and hit the helicopter behind it. The other one spun around in a circle before crashing into a lower level of TFK’s Tower and sank toward the ground below.
“Wooo!” Bano cheered as he pointed his gun at the other. He clicked the trigger. He clicked it again. And a third time. “Aw, geez!” He yelled as he threw the bazooka at the helicopter and ran down the hall. The blades of the helicopter sliced through the bazooka and gunfire rained into the room Bano was running through.
“Ah!” he yelled as he dived behind a desk. “What can I do? What can I do? What can I do?”
“Calm down, for starters,” Bano whispered to himself. His heart thumped wildly as the helicopter continued to litter the room with bullets. He knew it would only be a matter of time before one of those bullets managed to hit him and that’d be it.
His desk had made a proper hiding spot but he now realized the problem with his plan. There was nowhere he could go. As soon as he tried to leave the room the helicopter would be on him. “Dang it,” he whispered again as he leaned his head back.
A bullet smacked into the desk next to his head. His heart froze as he looked at the perfectly small hole. If he’d leaned his head in a different direction that would have gone through him. “What to do?” he asked himself in a panic. An idea came to him but he laughed. “I’m not even sure if Q would do something this stupid.”
****
Knssquad carefully looked around the room. She didn’t want to take her eye off of SSS who would certainly take advantage of a momentary weakness. At the same time, Knssquad needed to get a feel for the environment she was fighting in. She needed to figure out just where she wanted SSS.
The room didn’t stand out as very different from any of the other multiple offices they‘d seen inside the Tower. There were cubicles on both of the walls and a separate set of center cubicles with fairly plain desks attached. What bothered Knssquad was that the room didn’t offer much for height which meant she didn’t have as much room to dodge attacks.
“Oh well,” Knssquad thought as she focused on SSS. “I’ll just have to make do.”
The whip snapped through the air as it hit the wall behind Knssquad. She rolled to her right and threw four bladed doughnuts at SSS. She flicked her wrist and smiled as her whip caught them mid-air.
“Well, those do look delicious and all, but I’m not hungry at the moment,” SSS laughed as she swung her arm. Knssquad tried not to be fascinated as she watched her projectiles get slung back at her.
Knssquad threw several more as she dodged SSS’s returns. Many of them were sloppily thrown and ended up all over the place. The ones that did reach SSS were instantly boomeranged back.
“That’s not going to work,” she sighed. “Unless that’s your only talent?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Knssquad snapped as she hopped onto her hands and swung her body towards SSS. She grunted from the pressure of Knssquad’s kick against her arms as she blocked it.
Knssquad landed on one hand and used the other to attack with her Banana bat. SSS leapt into the air and dodged the attack but hit was surprised when she hit her head on the ceiling tile above. “Geez,” she said as she landed away from Knssquad. “Not the greatest space to battle in.”
“You picked it,” Knssquad said as she hurtled after her. She saw the whip out of the corner of her eye and twisted her shoulders so that she could avoid the attack. She landed away in a cubicle and rolled her eyes when her leg got caught in the wall.
SSS smiled. “Yes, I did. These office rooms are usually so boring. I thought it’d be fun to fight here.”
“Fun to fight here?” Knssquad asked as she pointed her banana bat at SSS. “Why’d you think that?”
“I always wanted to tear these offices up, really,” SSS said as her whip smashed a computer. “That’s pretty much it.”
“You seem really motivated,” Knssquad mocked. SSS’s whip grazed her cheek as she jumped away from it. “Too close.”
Knssquad threw an apple grenade into the air in front of her. “Take this!” she yelled as she reached her arm back and swung the banana bat into the apple grenade. The bomb zoomed across the room. SSS sprung back and fell into a cubicle.
“Nice,” she thought. “Knssquad threw all those blades earlier so I’d be cornered for this attack.”
The explosion tossed SSS across the room. After a moment she stood up and shook her head. “That really hurt,” she said. “I guess I shouldn’t be trying to go so easy on you, Knssquad.”
“It looks like I‘ll need to use ‘that‘,” SSS said as she reached her arms out. “My amplification form.”
“An amplification form?” Knssquad asked as she remembered hearing about them from Q. “You have one?”
“Hahaha,” SSS laughed loudly. SSS pulled out another whip covered in thorns and put it in her left hand. She snapped both across the room. “Amplification form: Release!”
Knssquad put her hands up to block for an attack. She knew from what Q had told them that these were pretty powerful. After a moment the room felt the same. She blinked and looked over at SSS who was looking down at the ground.
“Okay,” SSS whispered. “I lied about the amplification form. But I promise my double whips are pretty scary. So, you know, you better watch out.”
****
The group panted for air as they reached the top of yet another stairwell. “I think we’ve gotten away from them,” KKQ gasped.
“For now,” Death corrected. After pushing back against the mass of people the group decided to make a mad dash at once and put as much distance between them as they could.
As soon as they had put down their resistance the people that had been clambering through the wall began to swarm them. They had run for several moments slamming doors behind them before they felt safely away from the horde of people.
In the distance the group could hear battling. It sounded like it was coming from outside the Tower. “I vote we go help those guys and kick some TFK butt!” KKQ cheered.
“I think I‘d very much like to do that,” Death said and the group cheered behind her.
****
Bano’s kama began to pour smoke out of them. He waited till enough smoke had filled the room so that he couldn‘t be directly seen before standing up. The guns of the helicopter were firing wildly but he was happy that he at least hadn’t been spotted. He had one shot and he was betting it all on a complete guess of what the helicopter might do.
He stabbed his kama into the desk in front of him. Within seconds the entire desk had caught fire. Bano grabbed the ends of it and ran it towards the windows. His foot kicked into the desk and sent it flying below.
The helicopter followed the desk toward the ground. “I don‘t get it?” the pilot said to himself as he caught a better glance of it. The helicopter pilot had followed the desk for a ways but he didn’t see much point in going any closer to the ground.
He began to raise the helicopter back toward the room he’d last seen the man on. It wasn’t hard to do as smoke was pouring out from the windows there. “He must of used that distraction to escape to another floor,” the pilot said. “Little good that will do. I’ll still find you.”
As the helicopter neared the height level he’d been on he saw a figure leap from the Tower. He watched as the figure aimed for the helicopter and he didn’t have time to avoid the falling body. “What’s he thinking?” the pilot asked.
Bano’s kama hit the helicopter blade. For a second the helicopter blade resisted his attack. “Cut it!” Bano screamed. If he couldn’t he’d be dead in an instant as the blade would cut him down.
A snap followed and a piece of the helicopter blade’s flew toward the ground. He instinctively flipped his body back and stabbed his kama into the wall of TFK’s Tower. He vaulted his body back to the ground and landed on the body of a man he’d already taken out. He scrambled back to his feet and watched as the helicopter lost control and crashed into another building.
He screamed for several seconds as he realized what he’d just done. “Oh my gosh, never again, I promise!” he yelled as he took deep breaths. “I’m not doing anything stupid or dangerous ever again.”
After he’d caught his breath he began to laugh. Anyone still alive in the vicinity probably thought he sounded hysterical as he laughed himself to his knees. “I can’t believe it,” he smiled. “Geez, Q’s stupid must be contagious. But that was kind of awesome.”
He reached out and grabbed the kama he’d stabbed into TFK’s wall and used as a lever to get back into the tower. If he’d slipped he would have fallen to his death. He looked down and saw a grey object fly into the tower far below them. After a second of staring he just laughed even harder. “Then again, maybe I still am the sane one if I just saw what I think I saw,” he said as he turned back toward the Tower. An explosion could be heard below him as he headed back up the stairs.
****
“She won,” Zergio smiled in relief as he looked back at the ruins where Clair and Jose had been fighting. “Good. We held them off long enough.”
His smile faded as he watched Jz collapse to his knees. “You alright?” he asked him.
“No,” Jz shook his head. His entire body was trembling and he was soaked with sweat. “I’m sorry, Zergio. I can’t do much more for you.”
“Relax,” Zergio said as he fired his gun. “Don’t worry about it. Really.”
JZ had collected guns off their opponents and dropped them in a pile next to Zergio since he had run out of Ammo. “Oh, I like the way this fires,” Zergio said absently. He looked at his partner who was trembling on his knees. “Relax, you did enough. Just relax. We’ll be alright.”
Jz nodded but refused to fall. Zergio looked back at the battlefield and sighed. He wished he was as confident as he sounded. There were only a few men left and most of them were injured. TFK’s men, on the other hand, seemed endless. “We protected Clair,” Zergio reminded himself. “That was what we needed to do.”
A flash of light from close to the tower caught his attention. The sounds of guns being fired and battling could be heard coming from the front of the Tower. “What’s going on over there?” Zergio wondered. His eyes lit up as he saw TFK’s men turning around and firing back.
He couldn’t see clearly what was happening but he knew something had gotten their attention. Two people blurred into view and a trail of soldiers fell to the ground. He watched them zoom across the field heading to the spot they were hiding at. Before he could realize what was going on he had a knife to his throat.
“Are you with us or them?” Death asked as she placed a knife to the back of Jz’s head.
“We’re with you,” Zergio shouted. “You’re Death and Dei, right?”
They nodded. “What happened here?” Dei asked.
“Bano went into the Tower while Clair battled Jose over there,” Zergio pointed at the ruins behind him. “We’ve been holding back TFK’s men trying to buy time for Clair to fight Jose uninterrupted. We believe she beat him but we’ve pretty much lost our grip.”
“I see,” Dei said. “Well, good job holding out. We’ll back you up from here. We were with Yoyo but they’ve gone ahead into the Tower.”
“Thank goodness,” Zergio sighed in relief. Jz collapsed to the ground and fell unconscious. “How’d things go on your end?”
“After the cave in we ran into this weird pit of people,” Dei shook her head. “From there we just fought our way out of the Tower and thought we’d help you guys out. And what th-”
Zergio watched as Death and Dei’s face twisted into pure confusion. He looked up toward the spot they were staring at and his eyes widened as he saw something blurry crash into TFK’s Tower. “Did anyone else just see that?”
“I’m not sure,” Dei whispered.
“What was that?”
****
Knssquad spun through the air and landed a calculated distance away. “I can’t get close to her if she’s like this,” she thought as she measured the distance between them again.
Every time she had tried to close the gap between her and SSS one of the whips would send her flying backward. Her long range weapons were useless as SSS continued to throw them back at her.
SSS’s spiked whip cut into the wall next to her. Knssquad felt pieces of the wall hit her as she flung herself away from the attack. She pulled an apple grenade out and threw it at SSS. As it left her hand she watched SSS’s other whip snap into the grenade.
The crack of the whip gave way to a thunderous explosion as Knssquad’s apple grenade detonated on her. Her body burned as she ricocheted off the floor and into a wall. The wall gave way behind her from the force of the attack and she found herself rolling into another office room.
Knssquad’s body was frozen after that attack. Pain coursed through her and she knew as soon as she took a breath it would get worse. She couldn’t believe she had even survived such a close range attack. If she hadn’t have foreseen it the instant it happened she would have definitely died.
Her body heaved as she pulled herself back to her feet. A whole in the wall was what separated her and SSS and she knew she didn’t have time to waste. “That extra whip is a freaking pain,” Knssquad whispered.
The snap of the whip and something coiling around her arm told her she was in trouble. She could feel the thorns digging into her skin. Her fingers grasped the whip to pull it off but she only ended up cutting into her hands. A jerking sensation from her arm sent her flying out of the room she’d been in and face first into the floor of the next room.
Knssquad tried to hop to her feet as she landed in the next room but another whip slapped around her left leg. Both limbs jerked in different directions and she screamed in pain.
She glared at SSS. “You underestimated me,” SSS said as she pulled her whips tighter against Knssquad’s limbs.
Knssquad nodded and stood up against the pain. “You’re right,” Knssquad grimaced as she stepped toward SSS. “I did.”
SSS tried to pull the ropes tighter as Knssquad marched forward. The closer Knssquad got the tighter she pulled back. Knssquad ignored her pain and tackled SSS into a wall and smiled. “The reason I couldn’t get close to you was because of those whips,” Knssquad said as blood dripped down her face. “But if they’re already on me then the threat of them hitting me is gone.”
She glared up at Knssquad for a moment as blood leaked out of the corners of her mouth. Her face changed to shock as she glanced out a window behind Knssquad. “What the heck?” she asked.
Knssquad turned and jumped as the window shattered to pieces and an object smsahed into the room.
****
“This really doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Shiro said.
“Naw, it’ll be fine,” Titan laughed as she revved the engine of the van.
“No, I am pretty sure this won’t be okay,” Shiro grumbled. “How’d you even get the van up here?”
“You didn’t see?” Q asked. “It was kind of epic.”
“No, I hit my head and just came to. I saw the bad decision train was still going strong and thought I’d say something,” Shiro said as he watched burning pieces of metal fall to the ground. “Did I just see a helicopter crash?”
“I already tried to talk her out of it,” Amaterasu said. “At this point just hang on, Shiro.”
“Don’t worry about it so much, guys,” Titan said. “Sometimes you need a woman’s touch to things.”
“So you’re a woman?” Q asked.
“Says who?” Titan griped as she kicked the accelerator. Everyone screamed as the van peeled out and raced across the roof of the building that sat across the street from TFK‘s Tower. An ice cream jingle played happily as they neared the chasm between the two buildings.
“If a helicopter can’t do this we can’t do it! Titan!” Shiro screamed as the vehicle flew over the ledge of the building. Amaterasu braced against the wall of the van as he watched the nose of the car begin to dive lower.
“Woo!” Q yelled as the van flew through the air. Shiro’s screams could be heard by the people fighting below.
After what felt like an eternity the van smashed through a lower story of the Tower and spun around in circles. The group inside the car bounced in several directions as they felt the van come to a stop.
“Ouch,” Shiro whispered after it had braked. “That hurt.”
“It really did,” Titan said as she stepped out of the van. “Welcome to TFK’s Tower. If you’ll please stay in your seats until your captain has turned the engine off-”
“You’re not a freaking airplane pilot!” Amaterasu yelled before grabbing his forehead. “I have a headache.”
“Probably from Shiro screaming like a girl in all of our ears,” Q stumbled out of the car. “Geez, dude.”
“I didn’t scream that loud,” Shiro said as he hopped out of the van. “Don’t over exaggerate.”
“You did scream that loud,” Knssquad said as she stumbled toward the group. “I heard you screaming from inside the Tower.”
“Knssquad, wow, you don’t look so good,” Q said as he looked her over.
“I’m just dandy,” she said as Q patted her on the head.
“Where’s the others?” he asked.
“They’re all over the place. We got separated from Bano and a few others. Some of them are fighting below. Yoyo went ahead upstairs,” Knssquad recapped for the group that had gathered around her.
She spun around and pointed her banana bat at SSS who had her hands up in the air. “I almost got run down by a van in the safety of my own battle office. I’m calling it quits,” SSS said quickly.
“Okay, we’re here and we’re alive,” Q said. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to go join the guys down below and help them fight off TFK’s army,” Shiro said.
“I’ll join you, Shiro,” Knssquad said.
“Actually,” Q pointed at Knssquad. “You’re a terrorist, right?”
“I’ve been called by that,” Knssquad shrugged.
“Go ahead and blow up as much of TFK’s stuff as you can first to make sure his plan is thoroughly stopped,” Q ordered.
“Aye!” Knssquad saluted.
“I’m going to go stop TFK. You coming with me, Amaterasu?” Q asked.
“Who I am after is different. I’ll find him on my own. If I can hunt through WOTNOPOLIS and find criminals I can surely find who I’m after in this Tower by myself,” Amaterasu said.
“A simple no would have worked, ya jerk,” Q answered. “Titan what do you plan to do?”
“I’ll be looting!” Titan declared.
“And I’ll be helping you,” SSS added.
“It seems we’re all doing productive stuff,” Shiro sighed before racing towards the stairwell. “Let’s go!”
****
“Someone still needs to take care of that tank,” KKQ said as her pistols fired into the mob of soldiers. TFK’s men were falling on all sides. “However, it looks like we’ve about beaten back this group.”
The helicopters that had been covering the scene had all been destroyed by different groups. Most of TFK’s vehicles had been stopped by the time they’d arrived and Zergio’s force had taken out a surprising amount of his men. All they had to do was push forward and they had a real chance at victory. TFK’s Tower wasn’t firing off as many rockets as it was before and Jose had been stopped. “Maybe we can do this,” KKQ said as she shot another man to the ground.
A giant hammer smashed into the barrel of the tank. She watched as Shiro yelled for a moment. His entire body was in the air forcing all its weight on the hammer. After a second the barrel of the tank snapped and the tank rocked back. Shiro landed on the ground holding his hammer out. His smile was broad as he looked back at KKQ’s people. “We’re going to win!” he yelled.
Death and Dei landed at the top of the tank and threw the hatch open. The men inside were pulled out of it and tossed onto the ground in front of the tank. Their hands were held up in surrender. Shiro walked back over to KKQ with his hammer over his back. “Yo,” he smiled.
KKQ hugged him and laughed. “You’re alright, huh? Was that you guys I saw flying in that van earlier?”
“Yeah, it was,” Shiro shook his head. “Long story. Remind me never to do anything with Q or Titan again, geez. How are things here?”
“Looking like we won!” KKQ smiled. Her expression changed into that of fear as she knocked Shiro to the ground. She held him there as the tank flew over the two of them and landed on the concrete ground parking lot behind them.
Both of them looked up and saw a man standing where the tank had been. Dei and Death pointed their blades at him but stood a distance away from him. “What’s going on?” KKQ yelled.
Gunfire and screams erupted on all sides as KKQ and Shiro looked toward the entrance of the Tower. “Shoot,” KKQ yelled and immediately jumped to her feet. She pointed her gun at a mob of people racing towards them. “It’s those freaks that we saw under the Tower!”
Shiro ran over to Death and Dei and stared at them wildly. It’d taken everything he had to crush the barrel of that tank and it had just flown across the battlefield like a wadded up piece of paper. “What the heck is going on?” Shiro asked.
“We don’t know!” Dei yelled.
“He just showed up and threw a tank at us,” Death said.
“He threw a tank at you?” Shiro turned and saw the man standing before him. His body was trembling but he hadn’t moved since he’d arrived. One of the men that had surrendered from the tank grabbed his arm.
“Are you with us?” he asked. He then screamed as he was picked up by one arm and tossed into a group of TFK’s men like a doll. Shiro got a look at his face and his heart grew cold.
He looked behind him and saw that KKQ and a few others were facing down a large multitude that had poured out of TFK’s Tower. “Dang,” Shiro whispered. “Behind us an army and in front of us a man I watched slaughter an army by himself. Mikel.”
****
Yoyo walked into the large, dark room. A man stood against the wall on the other side of it and nodded at her. “I was wondering when you’d get here,” he said as he straightened his tie. “I was starting to worry that you’d already got beaten by somebody else.”
She didn’t say a word as she drew both of her swords off her back. Punkfilter walked across the room toward her. A smile played at the edges of his mouth as he got closer to her. She pointed the swords out away from her and marched on.
“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Punkfilter said as stopped and pulled his foot back.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for seven years,” Yoyo stated slowly. “The day I would kill you.”
Yoyo stopped walking towards him once she was within striking distance. Both stood there eying the other; waiting to see who would make the first move. After a minute had passed a green crystallized blade formed over PF’s hands.
“Then let us begin,” PF announced.
“You coming?” Draco asked SSS as they walked through the doors of the new Tower. She had been staring at its massive size in awe. Even though she’d seen construction on it and was aware of how big it would end up being, that didn’t make the final sight anything less to behold.
She soon followed TFK and Draco into the lobby. TFK didn’t glance her way as he walked over the shining tiles of his new lobby and threw two heavy metal doors. The elevator, one of three, closed behind him while Draco and SSS were made to wait in the lobby. The two of them were used to waiting on him to go ahead so this wasn’t unusual for the two of them.
“We’re not allowed into his office?” she asked him as she remembered TFK saying it earlier. “Geez, some boyfriend.”
“Haha, it’s not really any different then where we used to be in that way,” Draco shrugged. “He likes to keep to himself, you know.”
“Great,” SSS’s eyes wondered around the lobby. She couldn’t believe how many people TFK now had working for him as they walked past the two of them carrying suitcases. “Still, this is amazing.”
“Mhm,” he agreed. “I hear he’s going to be hiring a new a guy to add to the old guard.”
“There will be three of us protecting him now? Why so many people?” she asked as the doors to the elevator opened up.
“He’s a big shot,” Draco said as the two of them stepped into the elevator. “Maybe it’s a power thing. Keeping strong people by your side makes you strong. Not that he isn’t already a beast.”
“Seriously,” SSS sighed as she looked around the orange walls of the spacious elevator. “He should be protecting us if anything.”
“Agreed,” the doors to the elevator closed and the two of them were soon riding up . “I hear the new guy’s a real freak show, too.”
After a moment of idling the doors to the elevator opened up on a middle level floor. “Why are we stopping here?” she asked. A feeling she had known for a while but had ignored creeped up on her.
“I’m sorry,” Draco paused. “It’s just that TFK wants to keep the upper floor to himself; so he’d rather you stay down here. He was very adamant about this kind of thing.”
“I see,” she said as she stepped off the elevator. For a moment she looked around the office floor. There were a few people at desks and she saw a desk labeled, ‘SSS‘. “It was more fun at the old place.”
“Sorry,” Draco said as the doors shut behind him and he continued riding up. SSS walked over to her desk and shook her head.
****
The van had nearly reached TFK‘s Tower as it cruised down the road. The sounds of battle could be heard from the van and they caught flashes of light from the fighting. It had left them feeling anxious. “That’s probably our group,” Little Shiro said as they heard shouting become audible. “Should we help them?”
“I want to,” Q said. “But I’m not sure that we should. We need to get inside TFK’s Tower and they’re fighting outside of it. They could even be trying to do a diversion for us or something.”
“I think we should aim for the Tower, too,” Amaterasu agreed. “If his forces are somewhere else we shouldn’t miss that opportunity.”
“On the other hand,” Q said as they moved closer to the Tower. “If they’re losing the battle and we could be the difference between victory and defeat it’s hard to stomach leaving them behind.”
“I wish I hadn’t destroyed my radio,” Shiro regretted. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“I’m sorry,” Titan interrupted their discussion. “You guys are talking like you have a choice in the matter. I told you I’d take you to TFK’s Tower and we’re not stopping until we get to TFK’s Tower.”
“For some reason I feel like that doesn’t bode well for us,” Shiro muttered.
****
Two bullets fired in Bano’s direction. He leapt through the air towards his opponents. His blades sliced through the gut of one and he kicked the body towards the other. Both men crashed out the window dozens of stories above the city. “And goodbye,” Bano waved. Each floor had been getting progressively rougher as TFK’s men began to realize he was taking them on. And he was getting tired from fighting with all of them.
“Oh well,” Bano said. “I’m getting closer.”
He had noticed a while ago that not every floor had men firing rockets on it. He also realized that the bazooka groups stopped way short of the top floors. It wouldn’t be much longer before he’d cleared TFK’s Tower. Then all he needed to do was find The First Knight.
A loud noise interrupted his thoughts. In fact, it wasn’t just one noise. It was multiple noises and they were growing louder. As the noise continued to break his concentration he realized what it was and ducked behind an office wall. The room had a large set of open windows and a row of cubicles in the middle that he was now hiding behind.
Bano felt the room grow darker as the windows were blocked by large shadows. The sound of the hovering helicopters was replaced by the sound of gunfire as machine guns ripped into the room he’d been standing in. He dropped to the ground as the flimsy wall he was standing by splintered into pieces.
“Shoot,” he whispered as he crawled against the carpet. He hadn’t planned on taking a fleet of helicopters down. Something caught his eye from across the room and he smiled. Bullets landed all around him as he dived for the large, cylindrical object. He aimed it at the helicopters in front of him and laughed.
“Wow,” he could see the pilot of the first helicopter clearly. There were two more behind him but he didn’t have time to worry about those. He clicked the trigger of the bazooka and the helicopter in front of him burst into flames. Bano whooped when he saw the machine swing back and hit the helicopter behind it. The other one spun around in a circle before crashing into a lower level of TFK’s Tower and sank toward the ground below.
“Wooo!” Bano cheered as he pointed his gun at the other. He clicked the trigger. He clicked it again. And a third time. “Aw, geez!” He yelled as he threw the bazooka at the helicopter and ran down the hall. The blades of the helicopter sliced through the bazooka and gunfire rained into the room Bano was running through.
“Ah!” he yelled as he dived behind a desk. “What can I do? What can I do? What can I do?”
“Calm down, for starters,” Bano whispered to himself. His heart thumped wildly as the helicopter continued to litter the room with bullets. He knew it would only be a matter of time before one of those bullets managed to hit him and that’d be it.
His desk had made a proper hiding spot but he now realized the problem with his plan. There was nowhere he could go. As soon as he tried to leave the room the helicopter would be on him. “Dang it,” he whispered again as he leaned his head back.
A bullet smacked into the desk next to his head. His heart froze as he looked at the perfectly small hole. If he’d leaned his head in a different direction that would have gone through him. “What to do?” he asked himself in a panic. An idea came to him but he laughed. “I’m not even sure if Q would do something this stupid.”
****
Knssquad carefully looked around the room. She didn’t want to take her eye off of SSS who would certainly take advantage of a momentary weakness. At the same time, Knssquad needed to get a feel for the environment she was fighting in. She needed to figure out just where she wanted SSS.
The room didn’t stand out as very different from any of the other multiple offices they‘d seen inside the Tower. There were cubicles on both of the walls and a separate set of center cubicles with fairly plain desks attached. What bothered Knssquad was that the room didn’t offer much for height which meant she didn’t have as much room to dodge attacks.
“Oh well,” Knssquad thought as she focused on SSS. “I’ll just have to make do.”
The whip snapped through the air as it hit the wall behind Knssquad. She rolled to her right and threw four bladed doughnuts at SSS. She flicked her wrist and smiled as her whip caught them mid-air.
“Well, those do look delicious and all, but I’m not hungry at the moment,” SSS laughed as she swung her arm. Knssquad tried not to be fascinated as she watched her projectiles get slung back at her.
Knssquad threw several more as she dodged SSS’s returns. Many of them were sloppily thrown and ended up all over the place. The ones that did reach SSS were instantly boomeranged back.
“That’s not going to work,” she sighed. “Unless that’s your only talent?”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Knssquad snapped as she hopped onto her hands and swung her body towards SSS. She grunted from the pressure of Knssquad’s kick against her arms as she blocked it.
Knssquad landed on one hand and used the other to attack with her Banana bat. SSS leapt into the air and dodged the attack but hit was surprised when she hit her head on the ceiling tile above. “Geez,” she said as she landed away from Knssquad. “Not the greatest space to battle in.”
“You picked it,” Knssquad said as she hurtled after her. She saw the whip out of the corner of her eye and twisted her shoulders so that she could avoid the attack. She landed away in a cubicle and rolled her eyes when her leg got caught in the wall.
SSS smiled. “Yes, I did. These office rooms are usually so boring. I thought it’d be fun to fight here.”
“Fun to fight here?” Knssquad asked as she pointed her banana bat at SSS. “Why’d you think that?”
“I always wanted to tear these offices up, really,” SSS said as her whip smashed a computer. “That’s pretty much it.”
“You seem really motivated,” Knssquad mocked. SSS’s whip grazed her cheek as she jumped away from it. “Too close.”
Knssquad threw an apple grenade into the air in front of her. “Take this!” she yelled as she reached her arm back and swung the banana bat into the apple grenade. The bomb zoomed across the room. SSS sprung back and fell into a cubicle.
“Nice,” she thought. “Knssquad threw all those blades earlier so I’d be cornered for this attack.”
The explosion tossed SSS across the room. After a moment she stood up and shook her head. “That really hurt,” she said. “I guess I shouldn’t be trying to go so easy on you, Knssquad.”
“It looks like I‘ll need to use ‘that‘,” SSS said as she reached her arms out. “My amplification form.”
“An amplification form?” Knssquad asked as she remembered hearing about them from Q. “You have one?”
“Hahaha,” SSS laughed loudly. SSS pulled out another whip covered in thorns and put it in her left hand. She snapped both across the room. “Amplification form: Release!”
Knssquad put her hands up to block for an attack. She knew from what Q had told them that these were pretty powerful. After a moment the room felt the same. She blinked and looked over at SSS who was looking down at the ground.
“Okay,” SSS whispered. “I lied about the amplification form. But I promise my double whips are pretty scary. So, you know, you better watch out.”
****
The group panted for air as they reached the top of yet another stairwell. “I think we’ve gotten away from them,” KKQ gasped.
“For now,” Death corrected. After pushing back against the mass of people the group decided to make a mad dash at once and put as much distance between them as they could.
As soon as they had put down their resistance the people that had been clambering through the wall began to swarm them. They had run for several moments slamming doors behind them before they felt safely away from the horde of people.
In the distance the group could hear battling. It sounded like it was coming from outside the Tower. “I vote we go help those guys and kick some TFK butt!” KKQ cheered.
“I think I‘d very much like to do that,” Death said and the group cheered behind her.
****
Bano’s kama began to pour smoke out of them. He waited till enough smoke had filled the room so that he couldn‘t be directly seen before standing up. The guns of the helicopter were firing wildly but he was happy that he at least hadn’t been spotted. He had one shot and he was betting it all on a complete guess of what the helicopter might do.
He stabbed his kama into the desk in front of him. Within seconds the entire desk had caught fire. Bano grabbed the ends of it and ran it towards the windows. His foot kicked into the desk and sent it flying below.
The helicopter followed the desk toward the ground. “I don‘t get it?” the pilot said to himself as he caught a better glance of it. The helicopter pilot had followed the desk for a ways but he didn’t see much point in going any closer to the ground.
He began to raise the helicopter back toward the room he’d last seen the man on. It wasn’t hard to do as smoke was pouring out from the windows there. “He must of used that distraction to escape to another floor,” the pilot said. “Little good that will do. I’ll still find you.”
As the helicopter neared the height level he’d been on he saw a figure leap from the Tower. He watched as the figure aimed for the helicopter and he didn’t have time to avoid the falling body. “What’s he thinking?” the pilot asked.
Bano’s kama hit the helicopter blade. For a second the helicopter blade resisted his attack. “Cut it!” Bano screamed. If he couldn’t he’d be dead in an instant as the blade would cut him down.
A snap followed and a piece of the helicopter blade’s flew toward the ground. He instinctively flipped his body back and stabbed his kama into the wall of TFK’s Tower. He vaulted his body back to the ground and landed on the body of a man he’d already taken out. He scrambled back to his feet and watched as the helicopter lost control and crashed into another building.
He screamed for several seconds as he realized what he’d just done. “Oh my gosh, never again, I promise!” he yelled as he took deep breaths. “I’m not doing anything stupid or dangerous ever again.”
After he’d caught his breath he began to laugh. Anyone still alive in the vicinity probably thought he sounded hysterical as he laughed himself to his knees. “I can’t believe it,” he smiled. “Geez, Q’s stupid must be contagious. But that was kind of awesome.”
He reached out and grabbed the kama he’d stabbed into TFK’s wall and used as a lever to get back into the tower. If he’d slipped he would have fallen to his death. He looked down and saw a grey object fly into the tower far below them. After a second of staring he just laughed even harder. “Then again, maybe I still am the sane one if I just saw what I think I saw,” he said as he turned back toward the Tower. An explosion could be heard below him as he headed back up the stairs.
****
“She won,” Zergio smiled in relief as he looked back at the ruins where Clair and Jose had been fighting. “Good. We held them off long enough.”
His smile faded as he watched Jz collapse to his knees. “You alright?” he asked him.
“No,” Jz shook his head. His entire body was trembling and he was soaked with sweat. “I’m sorry, Zergio. I can’t do much more for you.”
“Relax,” Zergio said as he fired his gun. “Don’t worry about it. Really.”
JZ had collected guns off their opponents and dropped them in a pile next to Zergio since he had run out of Ammo. “Oh, I like the way this fires,” Zergio said absently. He looked at his partner who was trembling on his knees. “Relax, you did enough. Just relax. We’ll be alright.”
Jz nodded but refused to fall. Zergio looked back at the battlefield and sighed. He wished he was as confident as he sounded. There were only a few men left and most of them were injured. TFK’s men, on the other hand, seemed endless. “We protected Clair,” Zergio reminded himself. “That was what we needed to do.”
A flash of light from close to the tower caught his attention. The sounds of guns being fired and battling could be heard coming from the front of the Tower. “What’s going on over there?” Zergio wondered. His eyes lit up as he saw TFK’s men turning around and firing back.
He couldn’t see clearly what was happening but he knew something had gotten their attention. Two people blurred into view and a trail of soldiers fell to the ground. He watched them zoom across the field heading to the spot they were hiding at. Before he could realize what was going on he had a knife to his throat.
“Are you with us or them?” Death asked as she placed a knife to the back of Jz’s head.
“We’re with you,” Zergio shouted. “You’re Death and Dei, right?”
They nodded. “What happened here?” Dei asked.
“Bano went into the Tower while Clair battled Jose over there,” Zergio pointed at the ruins behind him. “We’ve been holding back TFK’s men trying to buy time for Clair to fight Jose uninterrupted. We believe she beat him but we’ve pretty much lost our grip.”
“I see,” Dei said. “Well, good job holding out. We’ll back you up from here. We were with Yoyo but they’ve gone ahead into the Tower.”
“Thank goodness,” Zergio sighed in relief. Jz collapsed to the ground and fell unconscious. “How’d things go on your end?”
“After the cave in we ran into this weird pit of people,” Dei shook her head. “From there we just fought our way out of the Tower and thought we’d help you guys out. And what th-”
Zergio watched as Death and Dei’s face twisted into pure confusion. He looked up toward the spot they were staring at and his eyes widened as he saw something blurry crash into TFK’s Tower. “Did anyone else just see that?”
“I’m not sure,” Dei whispered.
“What was that?”
****
Knssquad spun through the air and landed a calculated distance away. “I can’t get close to her if she’s like this,” she thought as she measured the distance between them again.
Every time she had tried to close the gap between her and SSS one of the whips would send her flying backward. Her long range weapons were useless as SSS continued to throw them back at her.
SSS’s spiked whip cut into the wall next to her. Knssquad felt pieces of the wall hit her as she flung herself away from the attack. She pulled an apple grenade out and threw it at SSS. As it left her hand she watched SSS’s other whip snap into the grenade.
The crack of the whip gave way to a thunderous explosion as Knssquad’s apple grenade detonated on her. Her body burned as she ricocheted off the floor and into a wall. The wall gave way behind her from the force of the attack and she found herself rolling into another office room.
Knssquad’s body was frozen after that attack. Pain coursed through her and she knew as soon as she took a breath it would get worse. She couldn’t believe she had even survived such a close range attack. If she hadn’t have foreseen it the instant it happened she would have definitely died.
Her body heaved as she pulled herself back to her feet. A whole in the wall was what separated her and SSS and she knew she didn’t have time to waste. “That extra whip is a freaking pain,” Knssquad whispered.
The snap of the whip and something coiling around her arm told her she was in trouble. She could feel the thorns digging into her skin. Her fingers grasped the whip to pull it off but she only ended up cutting into her hands. A jerking sensation from her arm sent her flying out of the room she’d been in and face first into the floor of the next room.
Knssquad tried to hop to her feet as she landed in the next room but another whip slapped around her left leg. Both limbs jerked in different directions and she screamed in pain.
She glared at SSS. “You underestimated me,” SSS said as she pulled her whips tighter against Knssquad’s limbs.
Knssquad nodded and stood up against the pain. “You’re right,” Knssquad grimaced as she stepped toward SSS. “I did.”
SSS tried to pull the ropes tighter as Knssquad marched forward. The closer Knssquad got the tighter she pulled back. Knssquad ignored her pain and tackled SSS into a wall and smiled. “The reason I couldn’t get close to you was because of those whips,” Knssquad said as blood dripped down her face. “But if they’re already on me then the threat of them hitting me is gone.”
She glared up at Knssquad for a moment as blood leaked out of the corners of her mouth. Her face changed to shock as she glanced out a window behind Knssquad. “What the heck?” she asked.
Knssquad turned and jumped as the window shattered to pieces and an object smsahed into the room.
****
“This really doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Shiro said.
“Naw, it’ll be fine,” Titan laughed as she revved the engine of the van.
“No, I am pretty sure this won’t be okay,” Shiro grumbled. “How’d you even get the van up here?”
“You didn’t see?” Q asked. “It was kind of epic.”
“No, I hit my head and just came to. I saw the bad decision train was still going strong and thought I’d say something,” Shiro said as he watched burning pieces of metal fall to the ground. “Did I just see a helicopter crash?”
“I already tried to talk her out of it,” Amaterasu said. “At this point just hang on, Shiro.”
“Don’t worry about it so much, guys,” Titan said. “Sometimes you need a woman’s touch to things.”
“So you’re a woman?” Q asked.
“Says who?” Titan griped as she kicked the accelerator. Everyone screamed as the van peeled out and raced across the roof of the building that sat across the street from TFK‘s Tower. An ice cream jingle played happily as they neared the chasm between the two buildings.
“If a helicopter can’t do this we can’t do it! Titan!” Shiro screamed as the vehicle flew over the ledge of the building. Amaterasu braced against the wall of the van as he watched the nose of the car begin to dive lower.
“Woo!” Q yelled as the van flew through the air. Shiro’s screams could be heard by the people fighting below.
After what felt like an eternity the van smashed through a lower story of the Tower and spun around in circles. The group inside the car bounced in several directions as they felt the van come to a stop.
“Ouch,” Shiro whispered after it had braked. “That hurt.”
“It really did,” Titan said as she stepped out of the van. “Welcome to TFK’s Tower. If you’ll please stay in your seats until your captain has turned the engine off-”
“You’re not a freaking airplane pilot!” Amaterasu yelled before grabbing his forehead. “I have a headache.”
“Probably from Shiro screaming like a girl in all of our ears,” Q stumbled out of the car. “Geez, dude.”
“I didn’t scream that loud,” Shiro said as he hopped out of the van. “Don’t over exaggerate.”
“You did scream that loud,” Knssquad said as she stumbled toward the group. “I heard you screaming from inside the Tower.”
“Knssquad, wow, you don’t look so good,” Q said as he looked her over.
“I’m just dandy,” she said as Q patted her on the head.
“Where’s the others?” he asked.
“They’re all over the place. We got separated from Bano and a few others. Some of them are fighting below. Yoyo went ahead upstairs,” Knssquad recapped for the group that had gathered around her.
She spun around and pointed her banana bat at SSS who had her hands up in the air. “I almost got run down by a van in the safety of my own battle office. I’m calling it quits,” SSS said quickly.
“Okay, we’re here and we’re alive,” Q said. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to go join the guys down below and help them fight off TFK’s army,” Shiro said.
“I’ll join you, Shiro,” Knssquad said.
“Actually,” Q pointed at Knssquad. “You’re a terrorist, right?”
“I’ve been called by that,” Knssquad shrugged.
“Go ahead and blow up as much of TFK’s stuff as you can first to make sure his plan is thoroughly stopped,” Q ordered.
“Aye!” Knssquad saluted.
“I’m going to go stop TFK. You coming with me, Amaterasu?” Q asked.
“Who I am after is different. I’ll find him on my own. If I can hunt through WOTNOPOLIS and find criminals I can surely find who I’m after in this Tower by myself,” Amaterasu said.
“A simple no would have worked, ya jerk,” Q answered. “Titan what do you plan to do?”
“I’ll be looting!” Titan declared.
“And I’ll be helping you,” SSS added.
“It seems we’re all doing productive stuff,” Shiro sighed before racing towards the stairwell. “Let’s go!”
****
“Someone still needs to take care of that tank,” KKQ said as her pistols fired into the mob of soldiers. TFK’s men were falling on all sides. “However, it looks like we’ve about beaten back this group.”
The helicopters that had been covering the scene had all been destroyed by different groups. Most of TFK’s vehicles had been stopped by the time they’d arrived and Zergio’s force had taken out a surprising amount of his men. All they had to do was push forward and they had a real chance at victory. TFK’s Tower wasn’t firing off as many rockets as it was before and Jose had been stopped. “Maybe we can do this,” KKQ said as she shot another man to the ground.
A giant hammer smashed into the barrel of the tank. She watched as Shiro yelled for a moment. His entire body was in the air forcing all its weight on the hammer. After a second the barrel of the tank snapped and the tank rocked back. Shiro landed on the ground holding his hammer out. His smile was broad as he looked back at KKQ’s people. “We’re going to win!” he yelled.
Death and Dei landed at the top of the tank and threw the hatch open. The men inside were pulled out of it and tossed onto the ground in front of the tank. Their hands were held up in surrender. Shiro walked back over to KKQ with his hammer over his back. “Yo,” he smiled.
KKQ hugged him and laughed. “You’re alright, huh? Was that you guys I saw flying in that van earlier?”
“Yeah, it was,” Shiro shook his head. “Long story. Remind me never to do anything with Q or Titan again, geez. How are things here?”
“Looking like we won!” KKQ smiled. Her expression changed into that of fear as she knocked Shiro to the ground. She held him there as the tank flew over the two of them and landed on the concrete ground parking lot behind them.
Both of them looked up and saw a man standing where the tank had been. Dei and Death pointed their blades at him but stood a distance away from him. “What’s going on?” KKQ yelled.
Gunfire and screams erupted on all sides as KKQ and Shiro looked toward the entrance of the Tower. “Shoot,” KKQ yelled and immediately jumped to her feet. She pointed her gun at a mob of people racing towards them. “It’s those freaks that we saw under the Tower!”
Shiro ran over to Death and Dei and stared at them wildly. It’d taken everything he had to crush the barrel of that tank and it had just flown across the battlefield like a wadded up piece of paper. “What the heck is going on?” Shiro asked.
“We don’t know!” Dei yelled.
“He just showed up and threw a tank at us,” Death said.
“He threw a tank at you?” Shiro turned and saw the man standing before him. His body was trembling but he hadn’t moved since he’d arrived. One of the men that had surrendered from the tank grabbed his arm.
“Are you with us?” he asked. He then screamed as he was picked up by one arm and tossed into a group of TFK’s men like a doll. Shiro got a look at his face and his heart grew cold.
He looked behind him and saw that KKQ and a few others were facing down a large multitude that had poured out of TFK’s Tower. “Dang,” Shiro whispered. “Behind us an army and in front of us a man I watched slaughter an army by himself. Mikel.”
****
Yoyo walked into the large, dark room. A man stood against the wall on the other side of it and nodded at her. “I was wondering when you’d get here,” he said as he straightened his tie. “I was starting to worry that you’d already got beaten by somebody else.”
She didn’t say a word as she drew both of her swords off her back. Punkfilter walked across the room toward her. A smile played at the edges of his mouth as he got closer to her. She pointed the swords out away from her and marched on.
“I’ve been looking forward to this all day,” Punkfilter said as stopped and pulled his foot back.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for seven years,” Yoyo stated slowly. “The day I would kill you.”
Yoyo stopped walking towards him once she was within striking distance. Both stood there eying the other; waiting to see who would make the first move. After a minute had passed a green crystallized blade formed over PF’s hands.
“Then let us begin,” PF announced.
