Crimson

Chapter 6: Malevolence

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One of the dark figures approached the pair, swinging a heavy iron chain about in one hand threateningly. Low snickers from the five could be heard, as the rest of the group followed their apparent leader and advanced upon the two.

“Well well well, if it isn’t Mishima himself…long time no see, kid.” The voice that came from the largest member of the group, standing with two on either side, was dark, heavy and husky; laced with danger. “Looks like you’ve had a little snack too. Go on, finish it, we’ll wait till you’re done…”

Kazuya frowned, unperturbed by the manner of this new opponent. “I would never do such a thing to anyone, as you well know. And no, you can’t finish the job.”

A few of the members of the gang chortled rudely under their breaths. Their leader spoke up again, his voice laden with sarcasm. “Oh, says he with the dirtiest past of us all…”

It took almost all of Kazuya’s self control to stop himself from ripping the obnoxious bastard’s head off. He decided against it, ultimately because he wasn’t the one armed with a chain, and he knew what he was up against. He clenched his jaw for a moment, letting the burning rage within dwindle before he spoke again. “Don’t tell me you believe what that old man has told the world about me. After the lies about those forests in the US? Let’s not even go there…”

“Who cares? That’s not the point.”

“Then what is?”

Another sadistic cackle. “You should have guessed. You never hesitated to kill people in the past, why change now?”

At this point, Jin had clearly had enough. Screw the danger, screw these guys. He stepped forward boldly, coming in between his father and the five insidious figures. “That’s enough. You don’t know anything about him, so just back off and leave us alone.” As he spoke, his mind crossed to the Slayer who had been their focus not even a minute ago. Where was he now? He saw him being dragged into an open doorway by the neck a moment ago, but he never came out. Heck…how many of these creatures are there around these days?

There was no time to react to what happened next. Angered by the young man’s words, the leader of the gang leapt forward, and in the process, throwing the chain out at Jin’s neck. The motion had it caught around his neck, and it was yanked forward. Jin choked. He gasped for breath, but could find none. The cold metal dug into the flesh of his neck; he would scream if he could, but there was no air to do so with. He was being strangled.

Kazuya couldn’t simply stand there as his son choked to death, of course; he threw himself at the pair of them, knocking them both forward several metres with the momentum, and sending them both crashing to the pavement. The chain, dropped by its surprised owner, tinkled to the ground, freeing the young man in its grasp.

He wouldn’t stop there. Kazuya grabbed the attacker’s arms and held them to his back; with a swift flip, he sent the creature head over heels, and onto his back, lying with his feet just poking out of the alleyway. In the sun.

The scream of agony that resulted was almost enough to burst the eardrums of anyone nearby. Kazuya shoved him further forward however, further into the sunlight. The creature’s legs began smouldering, and the smell of burning, dead flesh was becoming growingly sickening. The man’s screams grew louder and more pained, but Kazuya still held him there.

“I don’t believe you deserve a third chance at life, scumbag…” The Mishima’s voice was not without a slight hint of sadistic sarcasm. “And I don’t remember ever being overly merciful towards assholes such as yourself.” He watched, smirking, as tears streamed down the creature’s face. Now in the light, it was apparent that he was once a young western human, changed to the form of the Damned many a year ago. The alabaster skin was slowly burning, and his feet had been reduced to ash.

“Let me go…” The breathless plea for mercy fell on deaf ears. Kazuya was not interested in letting him live. Instead, he shoved him completely into the sun. It was a good thing few people were around in this area, because the events unfolding would leave many scarred for life. The ex-vampire screamed again as slowly but surely his entire body dissolved into ash. Within a minute or so, his body was nothing but a dirty black smut mark on the concrete.

Apparently, the entire group had stopped to stare in awe as their leader was mercilessly reduced to a pile of nothing. Kazuya’s dark, cold eyes immediately snapped back to the four remaining enemies. “Who’s next?”

There were no takers.

“Alright then, I advise you get out of here.”

Again, no takers.

Instead, one of them leaped out at Jin. This time however, he was ready, and the burly figure received nothing but a fist in the jaw, and found himself rebounding off the mouldering brick ceiling of the alleyway. Another lurched at the boy, but had as much luck as his predecessor. Jin’s powerful arms connected with the vampire’s chest, one swiftly after the other – the figure was thrown back with remnants of Jin’s forceful attack flurrying around his body in the form of red Ki.

Kazuya knew Jin could keep them occupied easily. There were only four of them so far, so he could defend himself. In the meantime, the older Mishima slipped around the corner, through the door the Slayer was dragged through a moment ago. Though it was pitch black inside, his eyes were able to see through the thick darkness within. What he saw wasn’t something he particularly wanted to. Unconscious, on the ground of the abandoned building, was the slayer – with a huge, overly muscular figure bent over him, face nestled in the gangly man’s neck.

His presence didn’t go unnoticed; the massive creature turned his attention to the intruder, his roughened face full of anger at the interruption of a nice meal. Well, on the bright side, there was only one of them. On the other hand, Kazuya was only half the size of this guy. Not good.

“You…” Ignoring his meal, the vampire stood up, and marched toward Kazuya at a great pace…

Outside, Jin seemed to have gotten the hang of fighting the vampires. He had two in his grasp; one able hand around each one’s neck. They were the smallest in the group, clearly; Jin was holding them both above the ground, and was standing in full blast of the beautiful morning sunlight. The result, of course, was ear-piercing screaming. One of the two remaining intact attackers was unconscious on the ground in the alleyway, the other knelt over him, trying to wake him up. As the two in Jin’s grasp began to disintegrate, heard definite sounds of punches, kicks and blows, along with shoes scuffling against the ground, and grunts of pain. He glanced quickly in the direction of the action…only to have a heavy, solid object thrown at him.

When the stars finally decided to stop spinning around him, Jin noticed that what was left of the two creatures he’d managed to destroy was scattered across the pavement, and his father was lying on top of him, knocked unconscious from the impact. His head had hit the far wall, after all; Jin was lucky enough to be underneath him, and received little impact.

Before he could push Kazuya off him and stand up, the older Mishima was lifted off him and held dangling above him. He looked up and saw the most massive fighter he’d ever seen; even bigger than that Marduk character. Kazuya slowly came back to the world of the conscious, only to have his breath constricted from him by the massive, ugly hand holding his neck. A deep choke escaped his lips, and he struggled frantically in the grip holding him – but to no avail.

Jin threw himself defensively at the hulk, but found his face connecting with an open fist, and ended up being thrown against the wall again. For a brief moment, the world went black and fuzzy.

Kazuya’s world, too, was beginning to go black and fuzzy. Since he was ‘dead’, he didn’t really need air, so to speak…or at least, he could survive a decent length of time without it…but the grasp around his neck had cut off every supply possible to his head, including blood flow. His energy dwindled and he began to surrender to the inevitable end. Through the blackening atmosphere, he could have sworn he heard a shot ring out, echoing sharply against the walls of the alley. Something must have happened, because he felt himself crashing to the ground feet-first, and felt a hot rush of blood to his head and cool air to his lungs. Slowly regaining his orientation, he coughed and choked as he tried to get too much oxygen into his lungs at once.

Shaking his head about, Jin finally managed to clear his vision after that second heavy impact. At his feet was the body of the huge vampire, bleeding to death with a bullet hole through the centre of his back – clearly, it had hit his heart. In front of the monster was Kazuya, on his knees, with terrible red marks around his neck where he’d been held. He looked in the other direction; towards the opening of the alley. Standing there was a sight he least expected.

Shotgun in hand, still pointed forward, was their saviour. Or so they hoped.

As a contrast to the beast lying on the ground in a growing puddle of blood, the figure standing before the two was most definitely female. The smooth, flowing hourglass figure was clad in a deep indigo one-piece suit; leather, it seemed, and skin tight. The zipper for the suit had only been done up to the middle of her torso, and her ample cleavage was exposed for all to see. Pale blonde hair was swept back from the weapon-toting woman’s youthful face, and her icy blue eyes were partially hidden behind the pink-toned lenses of a pair of designer sunglasses.

Kazuya finally looked up, and almost collapsed to the ground again. Oh boy, this could only mean trouble.

“Williams?!”