Twin instantly went on the offensive. She and her clone dashed at Ryder from two different angles at speeds too quick to keep up with, and the only thing that saved him from getting limbs hacked off was good instinctual maneuvering of his body, making sure that the razor wires he kept wrapped around his body beneath his clothes took the brunt of the blades’ attacks, blocking them from chopping through his flesh.
Of course, “blocking” those slashes was still painful, especially as the ninja’s swords pushed the barbs on the razor wire into his flesh, staining his sleeves with blood, but that was a pain he was used to ignoring, especially when his life was on the line.
With both of the ninjas on him, there was no way for him to load up more bullets and fire, so he instead called upon the retractable razor blades from inside his sleeves, swiping across the fast-moving Twin’s body, scoring a slice across her thigh, and using the other to sloppily parry the sword from her clone.
He tried stepping back to buy himself a half-second of time, but the clone threw one of her swords at him, catching him by surprise and nicking his shoulder. The clone dashed in to try and capitalize, but he was quick to roll over the hood of a parked car nearby. As he narrowly avoided taking a chop from the sword, he pulled out his revolver and began loading it with more bullets.
Unfortunately, in that moment, the real Twin’s hands went to work, and they were much faster and deft than his own. After creating a series of signs, she held her hand out towards the car he’d been hiding behind.
A giant black burst of shadow shot out from the side of the car like a battering ram, blasting into his side and sending him flying across the bridge. The clone leaped at him with a smug cackle, ready to finish him off.
He managed to let loose two shots – the first missed, but the second struck the clone’s shoulder, throwing off her sword slash just enough for her to miss decapitating him and instead “merely” splitting open his bicep, spewing blood all over the road.
“Shit!” he grumbled through gritted teeth, scrambling to his feet and desperately tackling the clone and punching the razor blade in his good arm’s hand into her throat. As the clone vanished beneath him, he got up and dived into the line-up of cars to the side to put some distance between him and Twin. “It’s always the goddamn copy…” he hissed.
“Hiding away, are we, Mr. Coward?” Twin called out, her masked lips curling up into a smirk. Typical. My love is the only man in this world with a spine, after all…
Not even bothering to pursue Ryder, she simply maneuvered her fingers into another sequence of signs before pointing her fingers at one of the cars Ryder was hiding behind. It instantly detonated in a column of bright orange flames, sending the car high into the air and over the edge of the bridge, down to the ocean below.
Another car found itself suddenly impaled by a giant pillar of ice, and this one was closer to the one Ryder was currently taking cover behind. He scowled. It had been hard enough fighting her with her quick speed and swords, but this was clearly the real threat she posed – those goddamn bullshit ninja spells or whatever the hell they were called.
He looked through a car to his left, using one of its rearview mirrors to get a better look at her. He watched as she brought her hands together in front of her chest, positioning her fingers in an intricate pattern just before the spell destroyed the next car. Looks like they come from her hand motions…
He fully reloaded his revolver again. Then, he maneuvered his other arm around to free up a few feet of razor wire, having it emerge from his sleeve like a whip. He wouldn’t have a lot of wiggle room with this next maneuver, and he had to make it fast.
As the car to his right blew up flying into the sky above, he sprang into action, rolling low on the ground into a crouch before throwing the razor wire towards her. The barbs on the far end wrapped around her left wrist, digging into her flesh and locking in tight.
In her moment of surprise and pain, Ryder yanked on the wire – hard – causing both of them to feel the barbs on their ends sink into their flesh, but also causing Twin to be pulled towards him in a straight, predictable path, which made it easy to line up his revolver shot.
But as Twin found herself helplessly soaring towards her opponent, she twisted in midair, and came face-to-face with the car she’d blasted into the air just before Ryder had made his move. And in a flash of quick-thinking, she pressed her one free hand into the side of the car, using the reflection as a replacement for her other hand, completing another quick sequence of motions.
She teleported away just before Ryder’s bullets could blast into her skull, appearing right behind him. Her hands reached for the handle of her sword, and in the same motion, slashed it down upon his back.
BB was also not having a particularly fun time dealing with two identical opponents. Not only was Dual a giant woman who could snatch her up and break her in half without much trouble, every punch that BB landed on her and her clone felt more like punching a mountain than a human.
She ducked beneath Dual’s heavy haymaker and stepped in with a picture-perfect liver shot that could clinch any championship in the world.
Though Dual did flinch ever so slightly, she immediately followed that flinch up with a shoulder charge that sent BB tumbling backwards.
“Goddammit!” BB growled as she kip-upped from the road and held her bat at the ready. “Yer a real pain in the ass to fight, ya know that?!”
Not one for trash talk, Dual and her clone merely resumed their pursuit of the GLYPH agent. BB batted aside the clone’s initial attack, but took a kick to the side from the real deal, nearly crumpling to the ground from the impact.
She pulled the trigger on her Big Bang Bat, spraying the clone with blue flames that set her hair and clothes ablaze, though Dual was quick to step in, grabbing hold of the baseball bat and yanking it out of BB’s hands as if she were a child. “Oi! Gimme that back!”
Instead, the CIPHER agent held the bat aloft, preparing to bring it down onto her knee. And for a moment, BB felt genuine panic race across her mind. Could she actually break it? No way, right? But if she could and did…what the fuck was she going to do? Could she get the bat repaired after? She needed that bat for far more important enemies than CIPHER…
There wasn’t enough time to make it to Dual to stop her, and she likely couldn’t muster up enough physical strength to make her stop even if she could cross that gap. All she could do was scream in protest.
But that scream did not come out from her throat as intended. In fact, it almost felt as though it didn’t come from her throat at all? But…her…back…?
It was also not BB’s voice – at least, not solely. No, the scream was more akin to a loud, beastly roar. One that shook the entire bridge beneath all of the GLYPH and CIPHER combatants, and all of the cars and the civilians hiding within them. One that had the clear skies above drumming as if it were in the midst of a deadly thunderstorm. One that had everyone present momentarily freezing in place in sheer confusion, Dual included.
The CIPHER agent’s eyes widened as she felt herself lose control of her body. What happened? What did she do?! A tingle ran down her spine – two, actually. The first felt like electricity biting and scratching at her core, and the other like a cold shiver of fear from within.
BB herself was also very, very confused. But she pushed that aside, instead focusing on taking advantage of her opponent’s sudden stasis. She dashed at Dual, blue electricity dancing along her body. With another angry roar, she snatched the bat from Dual’s frozen grip, without any resistance, and in the same motion, thrust her palm into the CIPHER agent’s gut.
A flash of blue electricity came from the point of contact, and a massive force of power sent Dual flying backward, dozens of feet. She crashed through a line of five cars, all of which had fortunately been evacuated by Samir, before coming to a stunned stop after halfway-smushing the sixth.
With a weird shiver and shake of the head, BB rolled her shoulders and turned to the clone, pointing her bat at her just as the clone began to resume moving normally. “Come and get it, bitch!”
HYPER HAWK found himself strangely unable to do anything other than casually walk around – he could not run, jump, dash, or fly, it seemed. He looked down at his legs and beneath his boots, wondering if there was something keeping him so limited in mobility, but he couldn’t spot anything. “Wh-what the hell?! What’s goin’ on?!”
Hazird hovered in the air above him. “Hmph. Bastard must’ve hit ya with some bullshit FORMA.”
“Can ya grab it and turn it off or somethin’?!”
“I dunno how that shit works!”
“Well figure it out! You’re always actin’ like you’re so much smarter than me!”
Trey’s brow furrowed. “What the hell are you running your mouth about?”
With an annoyed click of the tongue, HYPER HAWK reached into one of the compartments on his belt, retrieving a HYPER DRIVE and slotting it into the back of his HYPER HAND.
“ARROW!” the computerized voice within the glove called out. A green bow made of energy manifested in HYPER HAWK’s hands, and when he pulled against the string, a matching arrow appeared, soaring across the gap directly at Trey.
The CIPHER agent easily blocked the projectile with his red energy axe, then rushed in. The hero was barely able to switch to another HYPER DRIVE – the SWORD – holding the red energy blade aloft and just managing to block the attack.
The two exchanged blows, their weapons deflecting the other’s blade once, twice, thrice. But it was clear that HYPER HAWK was stronger and faster – so much faster, that with his free hand, he was able to reach for yet another HYPER DRIVE and slot it in as he continued keeping Trey’s weapon at bay. “SHIELD!”
From the back of his free arm emerged a blue energy shield, the sight of which had Trey’s eye twitch in anger as he himself possessed a similar weapon in his arsenal. And he became especially irate when that very shield blocked his axe chop, allowing HYPER HAWK to shift into offense, scoring a bitingly-hot, scorching laser slash cut across Trey’s arm, forcing him back.
The two fighters took a few moments to gather themselves. So he conjures up weapons, too, huh? Trey thought as his lips curled into a snarl. “That’s my power, asshole! You better not think you’re stronger than me!”
HYPER HAWK’s instinct was to dash in, only to be reminded of his limitations due to the [Walk] FORMA Trey had used, rendering him only able to pathetically step briskly towards him. He stopped partway through throwing his arms up indignantly. “Man, can you get rid of this shit?! This is so lame!”
“What? Not a fan of walking?” Trey’s other hand then sprayed the area with cold mist, which quickly manifested into a layer of frozen ground, catching HYPER HAWK’s feet in the maneuver and encasing them in ice. “Then how about I take that away, too?”
“Aw, COME ON!”
Trey dashed in and swung, his axe blade meeting the shield once more. But rather than take another counterattack from the sword, he shifted his weapon to his own shield to keep himself safe.
He then flicked his left hand, shifting it from blue mist to green electricity, thrusting it into HYPER HAWK’s gut and sending a surge of lightning through the hero’s body.
“Gah!” HYPER HAWK gasped. That was enough for Trey to batter aside the shield and go for the kill, quickly flicking back to the axe and aiming it directly at HYPER HAWK’s neck.
“MOVE, DIPSHIT!” Hazird called as he dived in and barreled into the hero’s head, sending his upper body askew enough to evade the axe chop from Trey.
HYPER HAWK then swung his sword arm around, slashing at Trey with the energy blade, slashing at his side, melting through his coat and shirt and leaving a nasty, burnt wound on his ribs that had him quickly retreating in pain.
However, despite Hazird’s quick save, the sudden tackle had also caused HYPER HAWK to drop his remaining HYPER DRIVES all over the ground, leaving the hero weaponless. “Dammit, Haz!”
“You’d be dead if it weren’t for me, jackass! Just pick ‘em up!”
Thinking quickly, Trey aimed his ice mist at the scattered DRIVES, encasing them all in ice. “Hmph. So your weapons are useless without your little toys, huh?”
His right hand flicked, and out came his neon-green rocket launcher, pointed right at the now-helpless HYPER HAWK.
“Well I’ve got no such limitations!”
Twin’s eyes went wide as she watched her opponent fall to his knees, blood spewing out from his back and onto her. This is it! I’ve got the kill!
Though her mouth was still covered in her black face mask, she was beaming as she raised her sword again to thrust it in for the final blow, heart beating in delight. I’ve done it, my love! I dedicate this first GLYPH agent kill to you!
But just before she could end Ryder’s life, BB’s beastly roar echoed around the bridge, momentarily rendering her paralyzed, causing her sword to slip from her hands, clanging onto the asphalt below. Wh-what?! No! Why now?!?
Down below, Ryder fell face-first onto the road, immobilized from both the sword slash and BB’s roar. Though it pained him to have to credit someone else for saving his life in battle, there was no denying it, and there was nothing he could do but lay there, waiting until he felt any amount of control return to his body.
And the instant he did, he activated his BOON.
R A V A G E
In an instant, his body was completely covered in wild black shadows, until it no longer really resembled his human form. He grew in size threefold, and a series of extra limbs – clawed legs, arms holding shadowy approximations of various medieval weaponry, tendrils, and wings – sprouted from his back and sides. His face contorted into a monstrous two-mouthed maw, lined with jagged teeth and two long tongues that moved like snakes.
Twin, now fully immersed in the shadow of Ryder’s monstrous form, found herself paralyzed once again, though this one was purely out of fear, if only for a moment.
But that moment was more than enough for Ryder’s shadowy body to collide with Twin, releasing a massive blast of dark energy that sent the ninja soaring dozens and dozens of feet down the bridge, until she was completely out of sight.
Then, strangely, the instant the attack was over, Ryder’s body returned to normal, though the gash in his back had been patched up. As he blinked back into consciousness, he sighed and turned his back toward the side of the bridge, towards the ocean as he prepared for what came next.
His BANE, RECOIL, conjured an identical blast of energy in front of his body, sending him flying just as far backward as Twin had, way off of the bridge, where he quickly plummeted into the sea below.
With an annoyed sigh, he began swimming back to shore.
For the next few moments, BB found herself greatly empowered, able to race around the area at high speed and batter aside Dual’s clone with her Big Bang Bat without much trouble, a fact which rather delighted her.
She laughed mirthfully as she held the bat at the ready in front of the dazed clone. “Hey batter, batter…!” The clone looked up at her in fear.
DING!
BB swung, nailing the clone in the skull and sending her flying off of the bridge, deep into the ocean, where she no doubt dissipated as she “died”. “Hooooome ruuuun! Hell yeah! I’m un-fuckin’-beatable!”
She turned back to Dual, who had begun to return to her feet, dusting off her now-dirtied white suit. As much as BB had enjoyed her little home run hit, she decided to put the bat away and crack her knuckles in anticipation of a redo of their fistfight.
“It’s foolish to not use that weapon on me,” Dual said as she got into position, hands up. “You are more effective with it than without.”
“Nah…” BB responded, assuming her own boxing stance. “You were just lucky I couldn’t hurtcha earlier. Now that that ain’t a thing anymore, I’m ‘bout to show ya how much better I am at fightin’ than yer big ass…”
Eager to demonstrate, BB stepped in in the blink of an eye, bobbing and weaving through Dual’s defensive jabs and straights. As she slipped one last cross, BB threw her own jab, catching Dual in the nose and drawing blood.
She swiftly stepped in a half-circle to the side peppering the CIPHER agent with a one-two before expertly ducking beneath the backfist attempt and throwing out the liver shot she’d used earlier.
This time, Dual nearly keeled over as a burst of air and spit shot out from her mouth and onto the asphalt below.
“That’s better!” BB snarled with a shit-eating grin at getting the proper reaction to her picture-perfect punch.
Dual tried to grab a hold of BB, but the latter was easily able to step back and evade it before switching to a southpaw stance and landing a nasty uppercut to the bottom of Dual’s chin.
Blue electricity shot out from her back and up her arm, adding an extra bit of oomph to the punch, launching Dual’s big, muscular body up into the air.
BB gleefully looked up at the sky to watch her opponent, anticipating her fall back down to the ground and surefire defeat.
But the second she turned her gaze upward, her eyes instead moved past Dual’s helpless body, towards something hovering in the air even higher.
The cocky smile on her face vanished, replaced with fear. “Oh, shit…!”
Though BB’s roar had helped herself and Ryder, HYPER HAWK had not been so lucky, as it only kicked in right after Trey had fired the first blast from his rocket launcher, forcing him to stand there and take the projectile head-on.
The force from the blast broke his feet free from the ice, at least, as he was thrown back a fair distance. His armor held strong, though, keeping his body safe from any serious damage.
As the paralysis wore off, HYPER HAWK got back to his feet, the sight of which had Trey scowling. Are you fucking serious…? How the hell did that not finish him?
In a rage, he fired another shot, and HYPER HAWK unfortunately took that one as well, much to Hazird’s annoyance, “Pay attention you fuckin’ moron!”
And yet again the hero got back up, though some of the spandex of his suit had torn, and there were cracks in his chestplate.
“Die already!” Trey yelled, firing one more time, catching HYPER HAWK dead-center of the chest, shooting him back even more, causing him to crash through a semi-truck.
A few moments later, with a groan, HYPER HAWK dug himself out of the crumpled truck. Some of the plating had been ripped off, and there were now cuts on the exposed parts of his torso, but besides that, he still seemed fine.
Shoulders dropping and jaw tightening, Trey dismissed the rocket launcher, which prompted Hazird to turn towards him. “What? This guy givin’ up?”
But in truth, there was nothing Trey could do any further at this point. As the MINUS – the drawback of his PLUS power – made painfully true for the first time in his life.
Trey was only ever able to land 3 attacks using the same weapon on any given opponent at a time, before the weapon became disabled. HYPER HAWK had taken three rockets dead-on and was still alive and well, and Trey could not fire it upon him any more, as much as he wanted to. No foe had ever survived 3 of Trey’s attacks before, so to him, he’d long considered his MINUS as practically nonexistent.
Yet that stupid GLYPH moron in his stupid costume with his stupid similar power had actually caused it to kick in for once.
As HYPER HAWK himself witnessed the supposed surrender, his head tilted to the head like a confused little puppy. “Huh? You done or somethin’? I can still fight, bro!”
Trey shook his head, turning to the side and spitting. He reached into his coat and retrieved the [Walk] FORMA, shutting its power off…and then he tossed it towards HYPER HAWK, before beginning to walk away. “Tch…You’re the stronger one for now…Take it.”
Hazird was the one to swoop in, snatching it up before flying it over to his still-very-confused host. “Why’s he giving me this?”
“Who cares? Just shut up and take it.” As the pair looked over towards Trey, back turned to them and walking away, the Red Phoenix Spirit then said, “Hey, you oughta just shoot him and finish him off while he ain’t lookin’.”
HYPER HAWK smacked the bird upside the head. “That’s bitchmade, bro. ‘Sides, the DRIVES are still over there. Help me get ‘em.”
“Fuck off. I’m not your goddamn dog.”
Shaking his head in annoyance, HYPER HAWK began heading over to the now-melting ice that Trey had conjured up earlier, bringing his HYPER DRIVES back into view. He picked three of them up before turning towards the others.
But just before he could reach for them, however, a pure-white tendril swiped across the ground along the road. But rather than bat aside or even smash the HYPER DRIVES, the DRIVES…disappeared?
But not just the DRIVES…a line in the bridge itself vanished. And no, not in the sense that it was physically destroyed, turning to rubble that fell down to the ocean below. No – that line of bridge vanished, erased entirely from existence as though it had been erased in a digital art program.
“Huh?!” HYPER HAWK’s head snapped upward to the sky above. And there, hovering above the bridge, was what appeared to be a giant…thing?
For a moment, it looked like a humanoid male figure made of pure white with absolutely no discernible features of any kind – no muscles, no bones, no structure, no skin, no texture, no shading, and no part of it affected by the sunlight. But the instant HYPER HAWK recognized the figure as a human man, it shifted into a giant orb, then a bird-like creature, then a house, and so on, from one vaguely-recognizable silhouette of one object to the next, with an ever-changing number of similarly blank-white tendrils stretching out from it.
“What the hell is that?”
The answer came from BB and Trey at the same time as they both gasped in unison.
“A LACUNA?!”
