|
Home About Me Computer Games Music Online Journal Stories Links Sign Guestbook View Guestbook E-mail me! |
Homecoming The sun rose over a calm and peaceful Trioustan. It was a Saturday morning. The sunlight shone over a sleeping Alice Zeng, who refused to open her eyes. She still thought of her brother. In fact, she had missed him so much that she began sleeping in his bed, as she was doing now in her blue pajamas. Last she had heard, Vincent was in Neo Aurora, but that was over a week ago. Alice didn't know where Vince was now, but she had prayed to the Great Power in Heaven that he was safe. Alice heard the window open and something climb in. Then, she felt a hand tapping the side of her face. "Alice, I'm home," came a voice. Quickly, she opened her eyes. "Vince?" she asked excitedly. "Is this a dream? Or is that really you?" "No, I'm real," Vince said. He was in his human body. Alice sat up. The brother and sister hugged. "It's good to have you back," Alice said, still holding on the Vince. "I missed you so much." "I missed you, too," Vince replied. Alice pulled away from him. "How did everything go? Did you find the Dark Fiends?" "Yeah, I found them," Vince replied. "Two of them have been captured." He paused. "And the third one's Chrissy." "Oh," Alice said solemnly. After a moment of silence, Vince continued, "Plus me and Lydia makes five. I was looking for the last two, but I just couldn't find them. I got exhausted and real nostalgic, so I just came home." Alice nodded. "Yeah," she said softly. Everything else was already understood. After another short pause, Vince asked, "So, how's Stephanie?" "She's still mad at you," Alice replied. "I see," Vince said. "I'm going to go see her." As Vince started climbing out the window, Alice called to him, "You'll come back, right?" "Of course I will, sis," Vince said. Then, he jumped out the window, the air bursting into flames as he did so. Alice walked up to the window and watched the black figure run down the street. Stephanie Chen sat at the desk in her room, diligently working on her math homework. She was already dressed and her hair tied with a blue ribbon. Whatever the day was going to throw at her, Steph was ready for it. Of course, she had excluded Vince. From the glass window, a tapping sound came to her ear. She looked and saw Vince outside, standing on the sub-roof of the first floor, smiling at her. "Go away!" she screamed. When Vince didn't leave, she yelled again and threw her eraser. Discouraged, Vince decided to hop off the roof. Later, she heard the door open behind her. Vince stood in the doorway, a bundle of roses in his hand. "How did you get in?" Steph asked angrily. "Tina opened her window for me," Vince said. "These are for you." He handed Stephanie the roses, but she smacked them out of his hand, knocking them all around the room. "I thought I told you to go away," Steph yelled. "Steph, I just want to apologize," Vince said. "You go and cheat on me with a white girl and you come back and think you can just apologize and it'll be all okay?" Steph yelled, enraged. "Steph, you don't understand," Vince tried to explain. "I didn't--" "I don't want to hear your stupid excuses," Steph shouted. "Go away!" "Steph, I'm sorry if I hurt you," Vince tried to apologize, "but please--" "I don't want to hear it," Steph cried. "Leave me alone!" Vince wanted to explain himself, "Stephanie--" "Get out!" Steph screamed at the top of her lungs. Vince stood there, unsure whether he should leave of stay. Then, the angry glare in Steph's eyes told him to leave, so he did. As Vince opened the door and walked out, Steph saw her sister Tina standing in the doorway, a terrible frown on her face and a tear in her eye. Later that morning, Vince wandered around Trioustan's streets, wearing his dark glasses. Although he had known that Steph was mad at him for quite a while, today was the first time he was truly hurt by it. Emotions flooded his heart--sorrow, anger, and pain--but no coherent thoughts formed. "God damn it!" Vince screamed as he kicked a lamppost. Walking away, he left a dent in that lamppost and didn't bother to go back and check on it. Vince had been walking around for a few hours. During that time, it had begun to rain, and Vince was completely soaked. Now, Vince walked along the abandoned railroad tracks, but in his current state of mind, he never realized he was there. He was too busy thinking of Stephanie and Chrissy, but not a single thought ever formed, only traces and shadows of thoughts. It took a while for Vince to realize that he had walked all the way to the old abandoned railroad station. Vince looked up to the central building. The sign said Railway Station A17. There was a strange familiarity to this place, but in his current emotional state, Vince couldn't identify what that familiarity was. He decided to enter and look around. The door gave a strident squeak when Vince opened it. He looked inside and saw Steve Lin sitting in the corner, his head down as if he were in as much despair as Vince was. "Of course," Vince said softly to himself as he turned to leave. "Hybrid Hangout. I should go." It was then that Vince awoke from the trance. He looked back inside. Lying on the floor all over the room were bodies. They all had the characteristic light brown hair and the face that belonged to no parent race. Vince knelt down to examine one of the Hybrids closely. Severe burn marks covered most of his skin. His eyes were open, but they were cloudy and without life. The unburned portion of his skin was pale and cold. Vince then looked to the rest of the Hybrids and found that all of them, except for Steve, were dead and had been so for hours. Vince ran from body to body. Many of them were Trioustan students that he recognized. Then, he came across Julia Blackson, just as dead as the others, lying in front of Steve. "Wh-what happened here?" Vince asked in panic. Steve Lin stood up slowly, his body blurring as if it were only a part of Vince's surreal dream. His skin began to glow brightly. Sparks flew, then bolts of electricity surrounded his body. It was so thick that Vince could barely see Steve through it. Still, he managed see Steve's skin and clothes meld together and darken to form a thick, black hide. He saw his light brown hair lengthen and turn bright yellow. "Isn't it great to be free again?" a Hybrid asked. The entire Hybrid alliance, the gang of half-Asians had gathered in Railway Station A17. "I hated that hospital," another said. "They wouldn't let me go anywhere, even when I was healthy enough to move around, and the food sucked." "Yeah, it's good to be out of that shit hole," a third said. Julia simply smiled as Steve held her in one arm. The Hybrids had been released from the hospital, and they were going back to their old ways, hanging out at the abandoned railroad station. They talked a lot, but most of it was small talk and not very important. However, at some point, someone spoke up regarding Vince. "Hey, Steve," a Hybrid said. "Didn't you once escape from the hospital to go kill that Vincent Zeng guy?" "Yeah," another one said. "You were so bad you couldn't beat him even with two pistols and a shotgun!" The whole room burst into laughter. "Shut up," Steve said. "He was the Dark Fiend of Fire. Who would be able to kill him, anyway?" "Anyone who knows how to point a gun," another said, laughing. "It can't be that hard to shoot a guy." "Dude, that's not funny," Steve said. "You weren't there. You don't know what this guy can do. He can take a bullet and still survive." "Yeah, because you can't shoot him properly," another Hybrid said. When Steve gave him an angry look, he merely said, "Lighten up, man. Can't you take a joke?" The Hybrids cracked joke after joke about Steve while he became increasingly angry. "Shut up!" Steve screamed, his face red with rage, but that only caused the Hybrids to laugh more. "Oh, he's ANGRY, he's ANGRY!" one said. Suddenly, bolts of lightning flew everywhere, emerging from Steve's body. A wall of electricity surrounded Steve, and suddenly, the Dark Fiend of Lightning was there. He threw a lightning bolt at a laughing Hybrid. The Hybrid's body shook violently with the shock, and he fell to the ground, his body smoking from the burn. The whole room flew into a general panic. The Hybrids tried to escape, but Steve hunted them down and fried them one by one. When they were all dead, he walked back to Julia, who was huddled in the corner. "Help! A monster!" she yelled in desperate fear. "A monster! Help!" She made a run for the door, but Steve grabbed her arm. Unable to run away, she started pounding on Steve's body, screaming, "Help! Help!" repeatedly. Steve let out a growl of malicious fury. Then, volts of electricity flowed down his arm and into Julia. As the shock permeated her body, she screamed with pain and paralyzing fear. Then, Steve dropped her, and she fell to the ground, dead. "How could you do such a thing?" Vince asked. "They were your friends, and especially Julia. How could you kill your own girlfriend?" "You don't know anything!" Steve shouted back. "If you hadn't become the Dark Fiend of Fire, none of this would have happened. If you hadn't become the Dark Fiend, they'd still be alive. This is all your fault! You spread the curse! You killed them!" "What are you talking about?" Vince asked. "You killed them, you murderer!" Steve yelled. "And now, I'm going to avenge them, by killing you!" "You're crazy!" Vince shouted back. "I didn't do anything." The Dark Fiend of Lightning didn't listen. Instead, he extended his hand and bolts of lightning flew out, flying toward Vince. However, Vince let the flames engulf him, and the Dark Fiend of Fire hopped out of the way. The lightning struck the wall, leaving a large, dark burn mark. Steve fired again, but Vince simply ducked out of the way and threw a few fireballs. Steve then created a web of electricity with his hands. With it, he caught the fireballs and extinguished them. Then, he threw electric bolts at Vince. Vince used his hands to create a flaming shield, which blocked the lightning. Vince then charged in to attack, but Steve raised his arms into the air. His body emitted a ring of lightning. It spread around him, expanding in a circle with himself in the middle. Quickly, Vince crouched and shielded himself with flame. After the expanding lightning ring passed safely by Vince, Steve jumped onto Vince and tried to pound on his back. However, before he could even get in the first punch, Vince let off a shockwave of flame, which expanded around him to engulf the whole room. Steve was caught in the blast and thrown against the wall. He quickly climbed to his feet and empowered his hands with electric energy. Vince followed, powering his own hands with fire. The two Dark Fiends charged at each other. Upon meeting in the center, they threw punches at each other. Lightning and fire flew back and forth. However, each attack was blocked by the opposing attack. The fire and lightning clashed but did no damage. Vince and Steve then separated, hopping back to opposite ends of the room. "Looks like we're evenly matched," Vince said. "In technique, maybe," Steve replied, "but my lightning is faster." "That doesn't mean anything," Vince said. Steve then fired a giant lightning bolt at Vince. Vince jumped and the bolt passed under him. As he landed, the lightning blew out the wall behind him. Vince then put his hands together and fired an inferno at Steve, spraying it left and right, aiming at his legs. Steve ducked and formed a shield from the lightning. "Nice try, Vince," Steve taunted, "but I can block your every move." "Yeah, right," Vince said with a chuckle. "I only meant to light that wall on fire." "Wha-at?" Steve said. He turned around and saw that the wall behind him was indeed on fire. "What good will that do you?" he calmly asked upon facing Vince again. Without even letting Vince answer, he threw a handful of sparks at Vince. Vince put up a wall of flame to block it. Then, he threw a volley of fireballs at Steve. "You missed," Steve laughed as the fireballs simply exploded at his feet. His amusement suddenly became surprise as the wooden floor collapsed beneath him, pulling him down with it. There was only one space on the far wall that wasn't burning--the space behind where Steve had stood and blocked with his shield. Vince then threw a fireball, lighting it on fire. Now, the wall could no longer support its own weight. It collapsed, and the ceiling collapsed with it. A heap of rubble fell into the pit, crushing down on Steve while Vince ran through the hole in the back wall. Vince then gathered the flaming energies in his hand and fired a bright, red beam onto the debris. A massive explosion sent plaster and wood in all directions. "You have to learn how to use the terrain to your advantage," Vince said. Suddenly, Steve burst through the remaining debris in an outburst of thunder and lightning. He hopped onto the railroad tracks and tore out a 20-foot steel rail. "How's this for using the terrain?" Steve asked. Charging it with electricity, Steve swung it down at Vince, then across the floor in a sweep, then upward, stopping the rail in a vertical position, holding it in front of himself like a spear. Vince easily dodged all three swings. "Not bad for a start," Vince replied as he fired an inferno at Steve. Steve tried to form a shield with one hand, but it was too small to completely protect himself. Thus, he let go of the rail while he used his other hand to make the shield larger. As the rail fell forward, Vince leapt up and gave it a double kick, sending it flying to Steve. Steve tried to block it, but was too slow. The rail hit him right in the head. With Steve momentarily stunned, Vince charged in with flaming fists, pummeling him with a series of punches. Steve tried to lift his arms to defend himself, but Vince was too fast for him, even though lightning strikes faster than fire. Vince then finished with a double palm thrust, knocking Steve into the concrete platform of the railway station. Suddenly, Vince was caught by a strong wind. The wind spiraled around itself in a drill-like motion, cutting into Vince's hide. As he was thrown up into the air, blood spilled. To make it worse, a lightning bolt hit him as he fell, shocking him with pain. Vince cracked the concrete floor with his landing. "Two Dark Fiends for me to play with," a voice said. "And they're fighting each other. Which one should I help? The one who tried to kill me a month ago? I think not." "Lydia!" Vince shouted as he climbed to his feet. "That's right," the Dark Fiend of Air replied. "It's me. I know you're not blind, so you can see I've recovered from our last battle. This time, however, with the two of us against one, I'm not going to lose. This time, you're going to die, traitor!" From his right, Vince saw a spiral of winds emerging from Lydia's hand. From an odd angle on his left, he saw a jagged lightning bolt arriving from Steve. Vince had been caught in a pincer attack. |