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Shaker It was lunchtime. Stephanie sat on a bench in the middle of the quad at Trioustan High School. A brown paper bag sat on the table in front of her, open, but Stephanie never touched its contents. "Hey, Steph," a voice called out behind her. Stephanie turned around to see one of her classmates. "I heard you're boyfriend ran away last night. What's that all about? He too scared to stay at home?" Another voice said, "So, is he really an evil Shadow monster?" Stephanie paused for a moment, then slowly said, "He's not evil. He might look like a monster, but I know that he's still the same, kind, loving person that I've always known him as. He's just lost." "So, where'd Vince run off to, anyway?" another voice asked. Stephanie hesitated. "He's gone in search of himself," she said, "even if he doesn't know it yet. I don't know how long it's going to take, but I'll wait here, faithfully, until he comes back." To: lady_stephie816@viltris.com From: redvincent0@viltris.com Hi Steph, Sorry I haven't e-mailed you already. Wandering around really has made me lose my sense of time. How long has it been since I left? A week I think. So how are you doing back at home? It's different, isn't it? I wish I could see you again. It's so hard without you. Anyways, I've been getting around by bus. It's amazing, I've been through so many cities now that I've lost track of them. I'm in a city called Aint Valle, and the only reason I know that is because the clerk told me so. I still haven't found anything. I don't even know where to begin to search, but I won't give up. Take care of my sister for me. Hope you're doing all right without me. With all my love, Vince Vince sat at a computer, just one computer of a whole room full of computers. All around him, there were people using computers. Some were typing up papers, some were playing games, and others, like Vince, were writing e-mail. The light brown wooden walls and the white plastic surface of the computers gave the room a bright, friendly feel. Vince's hair was a bit longer and less neatly combed. On his face, he now wore a pair of sunglasses, which he had hoped would mask his face. He also wore the same white T-shirt and blue jeans that he had worn a week earlier when he left Trioustan. By now, they were wrinkled and smelled slightly sour. "I should probably buy some clean clothes to wear," Vince thought to himself. "But I'm here for some personal business, not a vacation." Vince punched in a last few commands into the computer and left. Outside the building, labeled "Grand Aint Valle Cyber-Cafe", Vince stood on the sidewalk and looked around. Suddenly, he felt something. Vince didn't know what it was, nor could he describe it, but a feeling told him there was something important nearby. Vince looked around, still seeing nothing, and decided to wander around the city. As he walked from street to street, Vince began reflecting on the recent events of his life. He remembered his first fight against the Hybrids, how he first encountered the Dark Fiend within him. Then, he thought of Lydia, how she had trained him, only to show him that his sole purpose in life was as a weapon of destruction. He thought the Mystic who had first told him the truth about the Dark Fiends, the Mystic who had turned his whole life around with that revelation. He thought of his sister Alice. He thought of Alice's friend Tina. He thought of his girlfriend Stephanie. "God damn, I miss them," Vince thought, closing his eyes. However, his thoughts were interrupted. Vince could feel the indescribable feeling again. He saw a building, and the feeling seem to impel him to enter. "Bank of Aint Valle" the sign read. It was tall, carved of black marble. Its design was neo-modern architecture, a very eccentric and eye-twisting design. Hundreds of people stood inside. Myriads of bank tellers served customers. Important-looking people in fancy suits stood waiting in line. Vince felt as if something bad were going to happen, but he didn't know what and couldn't tell where it would occur. He noticed a very displeased-looking female teller at the far right of the counter. Talking with her was a man, dressed in dark green clothing, complete with an olive green leather jacket. His face was unshaven and his dirty blond hair disheveled. He carried a steel briefcase in his left hand. He began yelling at the teller, but Vince couldn't hear them over the noise of the rest of the bank. Vince slowly approached them. Then, he saw why. The man had suddenly turned into stone. Crowds of people screamed and began fleeing. In the next moment, shattered stone flew in every direction. The green-clothed man now had black hide instead of skin and cloth. His hair, now green and tangled, reached down to his mid-back. "I want you to stuff this briefcase with as many hundred dollar bills can fit," he yelled. "And there'd better be at least a million dollars in here when you're done." None of the bank tellers moved. "Fine, if that's how you want it, then..." Suddenly, the green-haired man slammed his fist into the ground. Along a line in front of him, the floor cracked and burst open, tossing dirt and dust into the air. This trail of destructive dirt continued until it reached a man unfortunate enough to have been on its path. A stalagmite rose from the ground and impaled him. As he screamed, his blood splattered around him, showering upon the bystanders around him. "The Dark Fiend of Earth," Vince whispered quietly to himself. "Do as a say or more will die," the Earth Fiend commanded. The tellers hesitated for but a moment. Then, a handful went to the vault to get the money. However, as soon as the first small wrapping of money was dropped in, three armed security guards ran up to the Earth Fiend. "Freeze, or we'll shoot!" one of them said. "Put your hands in the air!" "Take you're best shot," the Earth Fiend said in defiance. After a moment's hesitation, the three security guards began shooting. The Earth Fiend raised his left arm. It turned into stone, then extended to form a shield that the bullets could not pierce. At this point, the bystanders were in a panic. Many of them were running full speed in attempts to escape. Vince found it difficult to resist the flow. The Earth Fiend slammed his right fist into the ground. A trail of exploding earth split into three, each one shooting at incredible speeds toward a different guard. One quick explosion at the end of each, and all three guards were lying injured on the floor. Vince was now the Dark Fiend of Fire, and he attacked. "Wh-what are you?" a surprised Earth Fiend asked. "Why do you look like me?" "Except I'm red-hot," Vince replied as he threw a volley of fireballs. The Earth Fiend simply raised his left arm and formed the stone shield again. The fireballs hit the shield and sizzled into smoke. The stone shield, however, scarcely received even a slight burn mark. "It doesn't matter," he replied. "I think killing someone like you might be fun." The Earth Fiend quickly dropped his right arm into the ground, sending a trail of exploding Earth toward Vince. As Vince jumped to avoid the attack, he thought to himself, "Fireballs aren't going to work. He's just going to block them with his shield." As the trail of Earth created a gaping hole in the wall behind Vince, he continued his thought, "An inferno just might go around his shield and hurt him, though." Vince landed, threw his hands together, and fired off a spray of flame toward the Earth Fiend. The Earth Fiend, however, simply smiled. Before the flames engulfed him, his skin turned to stone. Vince stopped the attack, letting the flames subside. Then, he saw that the flames had no effect on the Earth Fiend. Vince stared with amazement. "There's no way you can win, fire kid," the Earth Fiend taunted as his skin faded back to black hide. "Even if you manage to get around my stone shield, my stone skin will stop all your attacks." Then, the Earth Fiend drove his hands into the ground again. With his two buried hands, he shot out two trails of exploding Earth. Vince ran to get out of the way of the attacks, but for every move he made, the trails of Earth would bend to follow him. "You're going to have a tough time dodging these," the Earth Fiend said as he watched Vince run around frantically. "Even though they're slower, I can make them follow you around." Vince jumped a little too late from one of the dirt trails. He felt sharp pain in his side. He looked at his left arm and saw tiny shards of black marble and concrete now embedded in his skin, like a series of stone splinters. Then, Vince saw the Earth trails coming at him again. He ran toward the broken wall, jumped, and grabbed onto the broken pipe, high up in the air, as the Earthly turbulence sped past him and smashed open a wall of the neighboring supermarket. "Get down from there!" the Earth Fiend shouted. Suddenly, dust began to coalesce in the Earth Fiend's hands, packing themselves so tightly as to form solid stone. The Earth Fiend threw out his hands and a volley of boulders flew at Vince. Vince tried to knock them aside with fireballs, but they only touched the stones and evaporated. As the stones pummeled Vince, he lost his grip and fell. The leftover stones smashed open the windows of the supermarket. "And now, to make sure you stay on the ground," the Earth Fiend said, as he plunged his arms back into the ground. Suddenly, everything began to shake. Fissures began to open in what was left of the polished marble floor. Pieces of the floor began sinking into the ground. Pieces of the ceiling began breaking apart and falling. While a thick hail of debris showered of Vince, a large piece of marble fell onto the Earth Fiend. As the Earth Fiend turned into stone to protect himself, the shaking in the room calmed for but a moment. However, as soon as the Earth Fiend cast aside his stone skin, the shaking resumed in its full fury. A large piece of ceiling landed on Vince, crushing him. The walls began to crumble. Soon, they fell over, burying Vince in debris. Then, the floor simply fell away. All the dirt and debris fell into a large, rectangular hole in the ground. The bank was no more. "Hey, fire boy!" the Earth Fiend, now standing, shouted. "You still alive?" Receiving no response, the Earth dropped his hands back into the ground and let loose two trails of furious Earth. The two trails coalesced into one large trail as the sped toward a pile of debris. Upon impact, a huge explosion rocked the scene. A bruised Dark Fiend of Fire leapt from the explosion. He fired down a giant inferno at the Dark Fiend of Earth, who protected himself with his stone skin. Upon landing, Vince stopped his attack and charged full-speed at his opponent. The Earth Fiend responded by returning his stone skin to black hide. Then, he plunged his arms into the ground. This time, instead of exploding dirt trails, a series stone stalagmites shot out of the ground beneath Vince. The Dark Fiend of Fire performed several flips and turns while jumping to evade the stone spines. Suddenly, two giant stone hands shot out of the ground, trying to grab Vince, who merely jumped back. Then, as the Dark Fiend of Earth smiled, a large blob of Earth came out of the ground, connecting the two hands. It formed a head and torso for the two arms. The stone monster vaguely resembled a person's upper body, still connected the ground from which it spawned. "I control the Earth, fire boy," the Earth Fiend taunted. "Do you like my golem?" The golem slowly moved towards Vince like a person wading through deep water. A stone hand came down at Vince. He jumped aside, but the other hand caught him and crushed him into the ground. While Vince suffered from extreme pain, a thought came into his mind. "If I could just keep him from controlling this Earth creation of his, maybe I could..." Then, he remembered when the ceiling had fallen on the Earth Fiend. As his skin turned into stone, his earthquake had subsided. He remembered his first fight with Lydia so many weeks ago. She had been diverting so much of her energy blowing away the bricks Vince had been throwing at her, that she had completely neglected to stop Vince's approach. "Of course," Vince thought. "It's just like my fight with Lydia. He can't put energy into both offense and defense at the same time. While he's in stone form, he has less control over his attacks. Now, to get out of the tight squeeze." With a loud shout, Vince sent a shockwave of flame in every direction. The golem's hand was incinerated. The bloody mess that was Vince climbed to his feet and ran, giving a shout of rage. The golem swept at Vince with its other hand, but Vince simply jumped over it. Running towards the Earth Fiend, Vince energized his hands with fire. The golem turned around and chased after Vince. The Earth Fiend's skin turned into stone just as Vince began his onslaught of flaming punches across the Earth Fiend's face. "I can't believe your trying this," the Dark Fiend of Earth said through his petrified mouth. "It's only a matter of time before my golem catches you. "If I attack you hard enough, it's only a matter of time before you crack open," Vince insisted. Vince looked behind. The golem's hand had regrown, but it had indeed slowed. "It's a matter of time, yes," the stone mouth said. "But I have more time than you. You see, you'll never pierce my stone skin." Vince began to punch with more fury, more intensity, more frequency. The flames on his hands burned more brightly until they were blindingly bright red. All of Vince's attacks were focused on a single point on the Earth Fiend's forehead, trying desperately to break through before the golem arrived. Just as the giant stone fist reached him, a crack formed on the Earth Fiend's forehead. Vince put everything into one last double-fisted punch, and the stone skin on the Earth Fiend's face shattered. The Earth Fiend came off the ground and staggered backwards. He tried to put his hands back into the ground to continue controlling the golem, but Vince simply gave the Earth Fiend's head a quick kick. The Dark Fiend of Earth fell flat on the floor. "How?" he said as he climbed to his feet. "How could you pierce my stone skin?" Vince didn't answer. Instead, he assumed a fighting pose. The golem stood frozen behind him like a grotesque statue. The Earth Fiend smiled and said, "If that's the way you want it..." He, too, assumed a fighting stance, but he also formed a pair of stone boxing glove-like blocks on his hands. He swung his fists, but the stone weighed down his hands. Vince dodged them with a few simple maneuvers. The fight was as simple as dodge, dodge, quick hit while the Earth Fiend was open, and dodge. Then, Vince felt something smack him in the face. The Earth Fiend had thrown the stone block off his hands. He then threw the other one, which slammed into Vince's sternum. Before Vince could recover, the Earth Fiend attacked with a series of punches, throwing Vince against the motionless golem. Then, he saw a stone spike fly at his chest, so he let himself fall out of the way. A quick roll, and Vince stood behind the Earth Fiend. Now, he saw what the stone spike was. The Earth Fiend had morphed his hand into it, probably in hopes of impaling Vince. The only thing it impaled was the golem. "Damnit!" the Earth Fiend swore. "My arm is stuck." Sirens sounded in the background. "All the better to finish you off," Vince replied sadistically. Vince held his arms out. Energy coalesced onto his hands, forming a brilliant blaze. The Earth Fiend struggled for a moment. Then, he reached with his free left arm for the ground, but could not reach. Finally, he put up his free arm to form the stone shield, just as Vince released the flare fury. The stone skin had already been cracked by Vince's previous assault. Now, it shattered, sending stone in all directions. Vince had to put up his arms to protect his face from the flying shards. The attack sent the Dark Fiend of Earth flying through the air. He landed, a human now, in the street as several police cars pulled up. Car doors opened, and officers arrested the thief. Suddenly, one of the officers pointed to Vince and said, "Hey, that's the Shadow monster. Capture him." Another officer pointed his gun and shouted, "Freeze!" Vince turned around and ran. Bullets flew past him as he jumped out of the hole and ran into the city. He was bloodied and bruised. He had just defeated a Dark Fiend and didn't want any trouble with the police. Thus, he ran with all the energy he could muster. Just like he had in after rescuing Stephanie from Steve, Vince ran and never looked back. |