The Iceman was the first to make contact with the mutations. His fists, made of ice through the use of his powers, were shaped like two picks, which were thrusted into the flesh of the first creature. It cried out as it’s oddly green blood spurted forth from the freshly carved wound. The next to reach one of the beasts was DarkWolf, a beast himself. His muscled, hairy arms ripped at the body of one being who consisted mostly of unstable, slime like puss. The green mutate stood little chance as DarkWolf released his fury. Eventually, each member of the two groups clashed with the other, until the battle ground became stained with all manners of blood...
Avalon was in a state of unknowing. One minute, his mind was floating, anchorless, with no weight, the next he was sped back to reality, his mind and heart screaming to life. His eyes were more awake then they had ever been, and they began darting around quickly to assess the situation. Eventually they found Pug, the short man’s face pale and concerned.
“Avalon...hurry....we must escape.” he said, as he hit a button to the side and Avalon was quickly, but not so gracefully, released from his constraints. He fell to the floor with a thud, and felt his arms and legs grateful to be free again.
“What’s going on?” asked Avalon, slowly rising, his mind amazingly nimble and quick as usual.
“I gave you a ‘wake up’ shot. Gulliver was planning on killing you but...”
“What?!?” questioned the blonde haired youth with amazement.
“He’s become insane, Av. Completely nutsoid. After Soma died, he stopped caring. Became cold. Brutal. He only wants to find a cure for the disease so he can continue to live that he may gain vengeance on Sinister.”
“But...I thought....”
“That you had the cure in you? ‘Fraid not, pal, you’re as infected as the rest of his lab rats.” Avalon reeled. His forehead broke into sweat and clenched his stomach with nervousness.
“We don’t have time for you to go getting all ‘I’m going to die’. We have to get out of here. Gulliver may return any minute.” said Pug, as he guided the bewildered Avalon out of the tiny, darkened chamber.
Moments earlier, Gulliver had been watching the brawl. He grimaced as his troops blood fell, and chuckled as he saw the blood of the Black Hellfire Courts’ fall along with it. The struggle displayed in front of him ensoaked him in his interest, almost so much so that he missed the warning beep on his wrist communicator that Avalon’s bonds had been undone without proper authorization.
“Pug.” he mumbled, as he turned in a huff and charged through a nearby doorway, which sliced its way closed as he went through.
About fifty metres away, Nemesis had spotted a movement in the shadows. She had watched it for a few minutes, before the unseen stranger had seemingly retreated further into the darkness. She attempted a psi-scan, but found that the entire compound seemed to have some sort of bafflers located within the walls. She scowled as she turned to the King Silver and simply told him “Follow me.” with that she dashed towards the area which the movement had occurred in, followed by a confused Silver. He dodged punches and attacks as he followed the Queen, who was gracefully negotiating the battle field and the soldiers upon it.
Gregor and SuperGrover had heard the noise of battle when they had pulled up in the driveway next to the armada of black cars and limos. They had quickly exited the Red Rooks’ sports car and had headed towards the sounds, SuperGrover a little more eager for battle then he would care to admit. They had come to the entrance of a dark tunnel and were greeted by the sight of Gomurr being pushed back by what a appeared to be a monster.
“Agh!,” he shouted, as he became fed up with the bout “To hell with you!”. The creature screamed as flames engulfed its scabby body, and where once stood a mutate there was nothing at all.
“A little harsh, don’t you believe? Casting him to hell?” said SuperGrover to his old mentor.
“Grover, glad you could make it to our little party,” said the Ancient, his mind and body focused on the battle before them, waiting for the opportune time to strike “I see you brought a guest.”
“What’s the situation here?” said Gregor, ignoring the old man’s dry humor as he had always done.
“Nice to see you too, my ex-majesty.” grinned Gomurr, teasing the old Black King as he had always enjoyed doing. For some strange reason, he found walking fine lines exciting.
“We don’t have time for this reunion nonsense, headmaster. I repeat, what’s the situation?”
“Well, we believe our Scribe Avalon has been taken prisoner within this place, and we have come here to liberate him. We encountered these...beasts...unfortunately, and have been detained since. I noticed, however, that our majesties seemed to have broken through the lines and have disappeared, hopefully they’ve found Avalon and we can get out of here....”
“Take me to where the Queen and...King...disappeared to Gomurr.”
“A simple ‘please’ would be nice. You can’t go giving orders and expect them to be followed anymore, Red Rook.” Gomurr snapped, feeling just a tiny bit vindicated. Gregor sighed. Why was the old man making this so damn difficult?
“Please show me where the Queen and King went, Gomurr.” he said, not noticing the smirk on the White King’s face.
“Very well then,” replied Gomurr, leaping back into the fray “But I warn you, you’ll have to keep up.”
“I’ll have no trouble with that, old man.” returned Gregor, as he tailed behind the Ancient. SuperGrover was left standing by himself, but not for long, as he too joined the fight against the seemingly incalculable amount of mutations. Many Black Club member’s were surprised to see the former Rook side by side with them, but they felt, as he did, that it was like re-living old times. Some of the faces, however, he did not recognize, and their ferocity seemed to almost startle him. These ‘newbies’ would have to be watched. As much as he saw the dispute between the two houses as nothing more than nonsense, he still felt that, in the wrong hands, these fresh recruits could be a dangerous weapon to bring down the IHFC.
Gregor tore his way through nuisance attackers as he followed Gomurr, the old man joyfully leaping and bounding ahead of him. Blood soaked his clothes, and his hands shook with adrenaline. Eventually, Gomurr stopped at the edge of the shadows, as he waited for Gregor to catch up. The Red Rook smashed his way through a wall of enemies and gained the side of the Ancient one. He panted for but a second, before saying “Where?” Gomurr pointed a bony old finger into the inky darkness swelling around the side of the room, and said “In there. That’s where I saw them go. Good luck.” Gregor stood surprised.
“You’re not coming?” he questioned.
“No, I’m not. As important as one student is to me, I can not risk my others. I will stay here, in case they need me. You go, Red Rook, and know, you have my respect. You have been cruel in the past, but what do you now is...extremely charitable. So very much unlike you...” he grinned his devilish smile at the last comment, and Gregor was not sure whether to smile or take offense. He decided that there wasn’t time, as he rushed into the shadows to see what they offered him. Gomurr regarded what was in process for a moment, before he too turned, and once again threw himself into the madness. As he did so, he noticed that more creatures were arriving. Only the heavens knew now how long this would take. He sighed as he wished he’d become a monk all those centuries ago instead of trying to seek out the Ascended one.
Avalon ran down the grimy, disused tunnels, to weak to use his powers to fly. Pug had guided them to the old sewer system which had been below the facade that housed the labs, and had said this was the only way to escape. The stench had almost made Avalon decide to surrender, but he had quickly banished that thought as he slid into the slippery tunnel way. He’d been following Pug for five minutes now, not sure of where they were going, when his foot slipped and had landed in the decades old sewerage water with a splash. Pug stopped in his tracks, and waited for Avalon to regain his stance, nervously mumbling to himself as he did so. He didn’t notice the huge, dark figure glide down behind him, from a trap door hidden in the ceiling of the tunnel. Avalon’s eyes expressed shock, and he had no time to warn Pug, before the hands of Gulliver clapped around the short mans’ ears, and twisted, the snapping of bone thundering.
“Poor, stupid, Pug,” spat Gulliver, dropping the dead body of Pug into the brown, murky water “Always trying to ‘do the right thing’. Look where it got him. A funeral in a pool of turds and piss, with no one but a stupid little child to mourn him.”
“I...I’m not a child...” Avalon said, biting back the nausea and fear ripping his stomach apart.
“You aren’t?” Gulliver questioned, with mock surprise on his face.
“I’m not,” replied Avalon with more determination, standing. “Everyone has tried to keep me as one, but I’m not. I’m a man.”
“A man?!?” laughed the huge Gulliver, using his powers to make his muscles more intense “You could have fooled me, boy! Yet, you insist on fooling yourself, don’t you? What does it matter, anyway? You’re going to die now. I’m personally going to throttle the life from you. Don’t worry, if I don’t do it, the virus surely will...”
“You think you can win, Gulliver? I doubt it. Look where we’re standing. We surrounded by water. My powers are electromagnetic, meaning I can conduct electricity. And I think we all know by now that you shouldn’t mix water with electricity.” the Scribe said, his face the most determined it had ever been.
“You wouldn’t kill yourself just to kill me. You don’t have it in you.” Gulliver sneered, the tiniest part of fear creeping within him.
“I wouldn’t? Like you said, old friend of mine, if you don’t kill me the virus will. If I have nothing to live for, why not take you with me? You deserve it. I’d be putting both of us out of misery.” Avalon began powering up an electrical charge in his hand.
“But, you know what,” he said, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks “I made a friend the other day. The first friend I’d ever made in the BHC. I had finally begun to pick up the pieces of my life, and then you came in, with your virus and machines and need to kill me. Well, fuck you, Gulliver...” he sobbed. “Fuck you for making me do this...”
Just as he was about to launch his blast into the water, he saw Nemesis and Silver drop down from the trap door Gulliver had moments earlier, and it took all his strength to stop the charge, and draw it back into himself.
“What are the hell you are two doing here?” he asked, stunned and angered.
“We’ve come to save you, boy.” Silver said, as he threw a punch at the figure of Gulliver before him.
“I hate to say the cliché,” Gulliver chuckled, as he caught the fist of Silver and began crushing it in his palm “But ‘Who’s going to come to save you’?” Silver grimaced as the pressure mounted on his fist.
Next Chapter: A fight in a tunnel full of toilet water! A fight in room that’s really dark! Nemesis connection to Avalon revealed (I think, if I fit it in) and the recipe to make the perfect brownies!
Stay tuned!
~Av