Tsuchigumo- His Brother's Curse PT2

Razordoll. One of many dozens of clones of a being made only to kill and cause havoc. This exact clone was made by a certain...ex-chief minister of a certain place that nobody knows about. It was designed to lack the whimsy and mirth of the other Razordoll killer models and be a strictly no nonsense strike weapon. You fire it a place and it makes everyone there dead. Then a little button makes it’s head exploded so you don’t have to die getting near it.

The thing is a living blade with finely honed instincts designed to kill. Every action it makes is designed to be as lethal as possible and it’s one goal is to see all organic life die.

Ingrid Blitzkrieg. A multi-millionaire arms trader for mad scientists and strange warriors. She has come in her state of the art Blitz-Blast Tank. It has forty weapons spread across it’s hover chassis, armour thick enough to shrug off a howitzer blast and enough of a range to fire back if they feel like it. She has designed the vehicle to maximize death on the battlefield, it’s central gun when fired can reduce city blocks to dust.

Deman. He’s HALF MAN and HALF DEMON. Trained in ancient spells and combat arts by the demon overlord Cruxia Malitrus. He has mastery over the elements of fire, all the smarts of a man and all the unrestrained ferocity of a demon warrior and ages or arcane spells at hand.

Tank. Tank is as his name implies a walking machine of war. This is V 3.0. He’s outfitted with twin minigun arms, bladed forearms tipped with adamantium, armour about as thick as Ingrid’s tank. It has a manual over-ride system allowing The Black Chaos to autonomously fire and operate any of Tank’s systems to help him in combat, allowing Tank to fight up close and use his heavy weapons.

Shannon. Shannon was not her real name, her real name is unpronounceable in the human tongue. She came to Earth in a giant ship to scuttle the world and it’s resources. She has reduced solar systems to ruinous husks of waste material and dead-space. She had her floating platform outfitted with high tech weapons and defensive orb bots to protect her.

Gunny. Gunny is a little marshmallow man who somehow got his hands on a giant wrecking ball that has been forcibly combined with a dinosaur. So he has a giant gnashing dino-head on the end of a giant spinal column swinging all over the place. Gunny also has a tiny pair of nunchucks...just in case.

All of these individuals are being directed by Doc Mc. Lamaty a mad Scottish scientist who wants very much for Louis Niccals to die. He wants this because Louis Niccals has secrets about his family and if those got out...bad things would surely follow. He has organized this group together in the hopes of exterminating Louis. He is observing the incident from above using a high tech satellite.

The one thing standing in the way of all of these people and a payday that could change their lives is not Louis Niccals. It’s someone so much worse than Louis Niccals. It’s Harry Redd, Louis’ brother.

Louis Niccals is a cowardly and craven sort who most anyone could beat in a fight. Harry Redd however...he’s very hard to kill.

Razordoll shot out her arms, slicing and cutting at the air. They’d started their battle in the back of a massive car, some old time mobster mobile filled with seats and reinforced doors. Her monomolecular cutting limbs had reduced the whole car to a shell of it’s former self. Able to stay on the road only by mercy of the fact she hadn’t cut away the tires. But try as she might, reduce the car to nothing as she had...she couldn’t hit him.

The older looking man wove between her limbs with all the grace of a dancer. Diving, dipping, leaning, tilting and sailing past her strikes. She’d go for a heart shot, try to rip him apart. He’d move, he’d lean back. Her strikes would slice through his silk shirt but she’d not draw blood. She’d not rip flesh, she’d not part bone. She could clean a man as easily as a fish but this man he made a mockery of her skill.

“This is a bit of an impasse,” Redd confessed, “you can’t hit me and I’m aware hitting you will hurt me.” He looked at the spent tommy gun in his hands. “I’ve rather established you’re bullet proof, which annoying by the way, so I’m stuck here unless I feel like getting serious.”

“You should be serious!” Razordoll spat back, swinging her whole upper body toward the man but he simply fell to his knees and she passed harmlessly overhead. She could see his face, he looked bored. He looked annoyed. He smirked an annoying smirk, you do not smirk at DEATH!

She lashed out, legs slicing forward but he hopped up to his feet, her limb passing under him, tearing away a small chunk of a shoelace and nothing more.

“Come on.” He muttered. He needed something to show up and soon, his brother was pulling ahead more and more with each passing moment. He had to get something soon before these others pulled ahead of him. He noticed the large floating tank had its barrel trained on him as did the large robot standing on the back of the tank.

The demon Deman stood there as well, looking sort of confused at what to do. Gunny and his wrecking ball jogged behind the vehicle and hovering above was Shannon with her weapons trained on the car. All of them ready to strike the moment he had an advantage, no honour among thieves...just a bigger share.

“Aye, aye,” Mc Lamaty spoke down the communicator, “you jist keep that wee wanker dancin’. So long as we’ve got ‘at wan locked doon we kin gie his mate the malkie.” He moved the observing lens away from Redd and his battle to Louis on his bike friend. “Ho’ You Ferrocity, luv. You get ready tae gie these two a doin, awright?” He told the morphable menace.

“I’m getting annoyed.” Redd said flatly as he ducked under another guillotine chop. “One of you hurry up and do something.” He snapped at the group who didn’t budge. Happy to watch him dance around death all day.

Ahead of them the road cracked apart as a great and giant arm snapped free of the ground, veins of magma coursing up the length of it. A head poke free from the ground, stony with eyes of diamond.

“I AM MAGMOR! KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE MAGMA CRUSADERS! I HAVE COME TO CLAIM THE HEAD OF THE KNAVE LOUIS NICCALS!”

The villains all looked at the giant lava warrior as he tore himself free of the road. There was a moment of stunned silence, Ingrid hissed and turned her tank to skid past the creature. Redd looked up at Shannon’s ship, at the monster he was facing and then he knew what needed done.

“That’ll do.” Redd said with a smile on his face. He turned around, the seats had been cut to ribbons by Razordoll’s attacks but at the same time they were still reinforced with a fancy material that made them quite durable. He tore a sizeable amount free as more bladed limbs nipped at him. Cutting loose and errant thread here and trimming a lock of hair there.

Honestly he’d killed at least twenty people today, his clothes were filthy with blood and he’d been wanting a change. This lady could remove some problem areas for him. He moved back quickly, sleeves falling away to expose his arms.

He wrapped his arms up in the reinforced leather from the car and grappled with Razordoll.

“At last! COME TO DIE!” She screamed in glee, her limbs slicing into him with fervor. The car moved on ahead as Redd lifted the razor limbed attacker from the ground. Magmor had just managed to lift part of himself above the ground, barely poking free when Ingrid’s tank swerved to avoid the giant. Redd’s car was on track to slam into the thing head on, take care of the problem.

Redd darted forward bringing Razordoll with him to the front of the car, he used one foot to tilt the car toward the giant lava warrior and threw Razordoll toward it’s opening mouth.

“MAGMOR SHAL- Razordoll sliced through the magma warrior like he was made of paper, his blood was lava. Razordoll screamed in agony as the sudden eruption of liquid magma erupting from his wounds boiled her alive in a pyroclastic blast. The car was launched upward by the sudden blast. The giant’s corpse spasmed before tumbling back down the hole

Shannon’s ship swerved too late, the car smashing into its underside and sending it spinning into the nearby forest, shearing through trees as it Shanon struggled to bring it back under control. Tank looked back at the sudden explosive death, a secondary boom sound as apparently Razordoll exploded, several shards of steel cutting through his chassis with ease.

“HEY!” He screeched as one of his arms fell off. A shadow, suddenly, he looked up as there wrapped in burning leather hurtling toward them was Harry Redd, a wicked smile on his face. “Oh crap.” Tank muttered as Redd kicked him in the face, his head twisted all the way around to face Deman. “INCOMING!”

Deman turned with all the speed of a human and shrieked with all the fear of a young girl as Harry Redd stood there, on fire. Wielding the machine gun arm of the giant robot like a club.

“Hello.” He said with a smile. “Let’s get to it then, yeah?” He smashed Deman in the face with the robotic limb, his HALF DEMON durability able to stop the weapon from slicing him apart. It was not a blessed blade which just meant it hurt an awful lot. Rather than killed him outright. Which...he supposed was nice.

“Hold still!” Tank snarled. Swiping at Redd with his one good arm, Redd parried the blow with tank’s other arm. Redd smacked the arm away and swung the weapon backward, smashing it against Deman’s face before he had time to recover.

“I’ve got him,” Ingrid hissed slamming her hand down on one of the tank’s controls. A small machine gun unfurled from beneath the armour. The gun whirred for a moment and Redd turned to spot it, leaping backwards to dodge the shots. The bullets just pinged from Tank’s body as he gave chase. The massive gun mounted to his shoulder pivoted to face Redd who balked for a moment, a hiss of pain travelled up his back.

Razordoll had slashed him up something fierce when he threw her….he smiled. A challenge, at last.

The gun pivoted once again to face him, Redd rolled back to his feet, his heels hanging over the edge of the tank with the road speeding past below. The tank’s main gun to his side and Deman struggling to stand up. Redd hoisted him up and snapped Tank’s severed arm around his neck, enabling him to drag and steer the poor demon. The machine gun fired, Redd twisted the arm and Deman intercepted the bullets.

“OW OW OWOWOW!” He screeched as the bullets bounced off his HALF DEMON hide, durable enough to take the hits...but it still hurt… Tank bounded toward Redd and his shield, swinging his clawed forearms toward Redd who dipped back and stabbed forward using Deman’s giant horns. The things scratched across Tank’s chassis leaving a large scratch.

“Whose side you on, pal!?” Tank roared, he’d already been stabbed by this Deman guy and now he was being used as a shield and a weapon at once. Whatta mook. Redd grinned at Tank, one eye on him and the other keeping him abreast of the gun. It came as a surprise that he missed the dinosaur head then.

The gnashing mouth swept past and Redd went with it. Gunny crowed in triumph as the gnashing maw scooped up the red man from the tank. “Crush him CHOMPULES!” Gunny said twisting the various levers and dials to continue to propel his bio-punk monstrosity.

Redd’s foot braced against a fang as another one dug sharply into his shoulder, hissing as the fetid reek of the beast’s motor oil breath ran over him. Deman was about the only thing stopping him from being crushed, he’d wedged the half demon between the fangs, his horns stabbing into the creature's upper gums and spilling a fluid all over them. A copper taste in his mouth, Redd spat to one side.

“I’m never coming to this plane again,” Deman said nearly in tears, “I hate you so much.” He told Redd who in reply punched him in the face.

“Shut up. Thinking.” He rasped as he kicked down, hard. There was a loud click as the beast's jaws parted, what was left of Tank’s arm was forced into the gap to hold the maw open. The whole area around them buckled and twisted, the landscape a blur of green countryside and trees. “This is where I get off.” Redd said leaping out into the spinning barrage of colours.

Tank groaned as Redd flew free, coated now in blood and engine grease.

“What does it freakin take to kill you?” Tank asked as Redd hurtled toward the tank. Tank stomped on the roof. “BREAK!” He ordered and Ingrid slammed down on the breaks, Tank only held in place thanks to his magnetic feet. The tank was coming up short, Redd would miss and hit the road, Tank grinned and then balked as Redd was able to grab the tank’s turret.

“FUCKING FUCK FUCK!” Redd snarled as his feet scraped the road, the tank began to speed up again, hoping he’d fall off. Ingrid could see him through a thin view slit and Redd glimpsed the green haired lady within, a commissar cap sat on her head as she cackled madly at his situation. “My brother would like her.” He said absently, had a thing for green hair.

He tried to shimmy his way down the turret, Tank appeared over the lip of the tank his minigun arm twisting. “Remember me, skinny?”

“IF you shoot me, I will absolutely fucking destroy you.” Redd said. Tank just smiled, Redd thought it was a smile. The robot fired and Redd let go, bullets sparked off the barrel of the tank’s weapon as Redd slammed into the main body of the tank. It was going fast enough that it was a short trip but also fast enough that he felt as though his ribs had just shattered.

“Come here,” Tank roared getting closer, his huge magnetic feet clanging off the tank’s hull. “I’m gonna rip off yer arm, see how you like it!” He pulled Redd up to his level and then realized awkwardly he had no arm to use to rip off his arm.

“Didn’t think that through?” Redd inquired as Tank slammed into the tank like a rag doll. “I am...getting very annoyed, I’m not finding this fun.” He warned. “You really want me to have fun here or I will beat you.”

“Ha,” Tank slammed Redd into the vehicle again, his massive shoulder mounted turret rounding to face the downed man. Bloody, burnt, beaten and covered in lord only knows what he looked an easy target. “You were a real pain in my chassis bro.”

Redd was annoyed. It was taking a great deal of effort to keep this fair, a great deal of personal concentration to convince himself this was all fun and games and not something to get serious about. He heard Tank’s servos lock onto him. He was exhausted, sore, aching all over and he could barely move.

He couldn’t consider this a serious fight. The minute he did that he’d win...and where was the fun in that? That said...his brother was in trouble.

“Don’t get mad.” Redd said his crimson eyes glinting like rubies in the dark. “But I have to win now.” Redd sat up and Tank said something, but what little wit he had displayed was drowned out when his cannon fired. Redd saw the shell come at him in slow motion. He groaned, this was a close one too.

You see...Redd was the smartest man in any room. He’d always been described as such and this made him as such. He’d also been described as a man who conquered every challenge. This meant that the moment he took a foe seriously...he beat them.

He caught the shell in one hand, it pulled him to his feet before he threw it back. The bullet shattered through Tank, snapping him clean in half. Redd landed on the front of the tank where with one gentle kick he sent the turret spinning around, catching the dinosaur wrecking ball at the shin and shattering it’s leg with ease. The thing fell down, roaring as it went. The tank turret also slammed into Tank’s upper half taking it for a ride.

“For CHOMPULES!” Gunny yelled leaping out of his cockpit, nunchucks flailing and diving for Redd. The tiny nunchucks whistling through the air as he fell. Tank for his part was having a major system malfunction due to being ripped in half, The Black Chaos was downloading his memory cores to place him in a new body. But used his control to fire Tank’s turret one more time.

The bullet shot out, The Black Chaos knew he’d got him. Redd turned to see the bullet and kicked the thing, honest to god, right back at Tank. The camera feed died. Tank’s memory cores had been downloaded successfully thankfully. He breathed a slow sigh of relief.

“McLamaty,” he spoke down his communicator, “I have no idea if you’ve any bigger guns, but I would advise actioning them now. We’ve come half cocked to this fight” The Black Chaos hated to say it but whoever that older fellow was, he was not to be trifled with. His reply was a mixture of curse words and Scottish. So...normal response.

He then picked up his phone and sent a message to his next.

The Scotsman has messed up. Exterminate target with extreme prejudice then flee.

Redd held the little marshmallow man in his hand and looked at his big floppy hat. Gunny for his part papped Redd with his nunchucks, the guy didn’t seem too upset. “You will pay for what you did to Chompules!” Gunny told him again, giving him another solid bap on the arm.

Redd pulled a business card from his pocket and shoved it under Gunny’s floppy hat. “Bill us, honestly do, we can pay for a new one. Also you are super brave for jumping from that height, good stuff. We could use you on team Redd.” He then chucked Gunny into a field. Gunny swore squeaky vengeance as he bounced off into the distance.

Redd looked down at the tank below him. “You catch up to my brother and his motor-tart or I’m going to rip through this armour and then tear off all your skin, do you hear me? I will use my nails and it will be horrible for you.”

The tank sped up as Ingrid decided she knew which side she was on now. Arms dealers sell to winners and losers after all. Redd looked back at the ruined dinosaur mess behind him, dozens of wrecked cars and a giant lava-man corpse. From the mouth of the fallen...Chompules….Redd could see Deman crawling away in agony.

Not a bad start to the morning.

---

“‘At right there just boils mah pish, so it does.” McLamaty rattled. “Some wee prick shows up gie’s awl that, an noo this is mah whole day. Tryin’ tae kill some numptie and his mate.” McLamaty picked up a small communication device and relayed instructions to his next agent. “Ho, hen, tell the mad bastert tae jump.”

Dr. Sarah Gillian aka The Mosquito was...not useful in this situation. Scotland has no mosquitos at all, they have midges which are pretty much the defenceless idiot cousins of mosquitos so that was bad. Still she was able to provide aerial reconnaissance on the Niccals guy, flying above cloud cover with her insulated flight suit.

Her antenna received the doctor's signal. She supposed that this wasn’t all bad, she could avoid a fight and she’d still get a payday out of it at the end. She flew higher to send the signal to their ace in the hole.

“Iz zat ze signal, my sweet?” That said she wished she hadn’t been given the ridealong...he was seriously creepy, sitting in some little insulated tube and talking to her non-stop through the radio.

“Quiet, I gotta talk to the big guy.” Mosquito responded slapping at a capsule on her hip.

“Anarchy. You’re good to go.”

HALO. High Altitude Low Open. It’s a fun little thing where you jump out of a plane or orbital frame and plummet to the Earth and open the chute as late as possible. Alan Miller aka Anarchy figured you were a wimp if you had to open a chute. He was in low orbit above the planet, oxygen mask strapped to his face when he stepped into free air and fell.

He hurtled toward the planet, faster, faster, faster as flames caressed his body, he didn’t feel the pain, his suit buzzed as it collected the energy of his descent. Charging his body with power, more and more of it as he drew ever closer to his target. A speck right now but soon...a bloody smear.

Louis groaned. “I have no idea where we’re going.” He told Meta. “I assume you’re taking me somewhere to extract information and then let me run.” He draped his arms lazily over her shoulders. “I don’t have any,” he said, “I didn’t send out that broadcast. I didn’t tell the world I stole their secrets and too kill me.”

Meta didn’t say anything at first. “Fuck’s sake.” She snapped looking at him. “You didn’t did you? I’ve wasted my time, pissed off a criminal syndicate and all for nothing.”

“Not nothing, I can pay you for your trouble.” Louis said quietly. “If you get me to somewhere safe I can pay double, imagine all the zeroes you want and I’ll add two more zeroes than that.” He looked up at Meta, battered and bloody he smiled. “I’m very sorry about this.”

“You should be.” Meta snapped. “I assumed you’d be worth more than a quick payday.” She groaned. “I’m going to be blacklisted again thanks to this,” she looked at that awful smile on his face, “if you smile at me like that much longer I’m going to slap you.” She told him and he stopped smiling. “I swear to god, I can pick them.”

“It’s our winning smiles,” he drawled, “me and Elle have them.” He groaned. “So she has no idea I’m in trouble.”

“She wouldn’t help.” Meta told him sharply. “She’s far too self involved for that.” She felt something then, something strange whistle past. She looked ahead of herself and saw the attack coming far too late to do anything about it. Ms. Meta’s human half fell off the bike, landing and scraping along the road.

“Fuck me!” Louis hissed as dead ahead he spotted an individual in a tight black suit, a large biker helmet and glowing orange eyes. In one hand he held an organ blade, steel dripping off the thing. Louis tried to steer the bike but the whole thing seemed to turn into slush beneath him, wheels vanishing and then the frame turning to goop in his hands. He looked to the grass on one side of the road. Still going to suck.

He leapt free of his ride as it began to turn to nothing, only to see some woman dipped from above and throw down some kind of tube toward him. The tube exploded and a massive blue shape seemed to unfur. The whole thing encased Louis and cushioned his fall, but at the same time he felt it lash around his body, tethering him in place.

“Ah monsieur,” the voice spoke up giving him conniptions, “ze blue viper, he has you in his coils! Zay zey you are a big hero in France! Make you a citizen of my beloved France, ze fact you ‘ave faked your death to trick them, it sickens me to my core!” The blue material sank away and Louis was bound up in the rope like body of a young man. Dark hair and a blue mask.

“Oh thank fuck.” Louis said. “I thought you were somebody else, what is it with you people and snakes?” He demanded of the young man, who simply punched Louis in the face.

“Ok.” Louis said spitting on the ground. “Sure. Dick.” He coughed again as The Blue Viper watched the crew assemble. Blitzkrieg was a scary sort, his breathing ragged and his blade utterly melted down to the handle. Still he was the only one who could have taken away the metal protector Louis had.

“This is the guy?” Blitzkrieg asked, his voice muffled by his respirator mask, unhooking it he grinned at the bound Louis. “You bout to be the easiest million I ever made.” He said dropping his weapon to the ground and removing a fresh one from one of his pouches.

“Wait!” The Mosquito landed on the ground, flexile wings depowering and folding up. Their energy membrane depowered allowing the wings to fold up tight against her back, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. “We have to follow the app instructions to claim the bounty.”

Meta pulled herself up, aches all across her side and flesh slowly reforming. A great gout of flame landed ahead of her and encircled her in moments. Floating above, jetpack on her back was a lady in red, red hair and burning hands.

“Don’t.” Cinderella advised. “Boss man wants a word, you ain’t moving till he’s had it.” The pyrokinetic lowered flew back, keeping up the blasts to encircle Meta as she lay prone. Meta’s flesh began to run at the intense heat and she was stuck. Meta held up her hands and wailed.

“OH no! I am trapped and melting!” She was a bit more...theatrical than she needed to be. But at the same time they stopped focusing on her and she started to sneak her way out the ring of fire. Dumb kids, thinking they could burn hot enough to make her colours run.

“You lot keep cool.” Cinderella advised. “We ain’t done yet.”

In the distance Ingrid’s tank pulled ever closer. Ingrid saw the fire ahead and saw a communication beep on her tank. GET OUT NOW.

Ingrid never one to disobey a direct order, set the tank on autopilot and crept to the rear of the compartment. Sitting in an emergency seat, she kissed her palm and placed it against the chassis. “Parting is such sweet sorrow, bye oh machine of death.” She slammed her fist against a button and all at once her compartment ejected out the back of the tank.

Redd saw it fly out and wondered what that was about. That was when Anarchy slammed into the tank and destroyed it utterly. The villains all let out a little Ooooh at the destruction and Louis just laughed a little, desperate.

“He’s fine.” Louis said as a figure stood up in the smoulder wreck. The figure walked out. “Oh fuck.” He replied when he saw it wasn’t Redd but some tall Aryan looking asshole. Wearing a red suit with a giant A making up the design, in the centre of his chest was a giant glowing light which seemed to be vibrating. The guy was seriously powerful, every step he took cracked the earth and Louis could feel the ground shake beneath him.

McLamaty sat in his lair, M-Bots flying around and shooting off champagne corks, pouring the mad doctor a nice glass of bubbly. He sipped from the glass. “That’s yew snookeret mate.” He said as one of his M-Bots beeped. “Wuzzat?” He saw on the screen some sort of jet streaming through the air. “‘At’s naw wan of ours…”

“Nothing like a little low-orbit energy build up to get the day start eh?” Anarchy asked, having absorbed all that energy he felt fit to burst but he wanted to hold onto the power. This little puke, Louis Niccals, said he had details on P.R.I.N.C.E. in his big fancy speech. He could get some info out of this guy and destroy their whole freaking organisation. “This the dude?” Anarchy said coming closer, the group parted to allow him through. He seemed to be vibrating with power.

“Zis iz he.” The Blue Viper replied. “We were checking ze bounty instructions before your tres dynamic entrance.” He said while Anarchy grabbed onto Louis chin, made him look at him.

“You scared little guy?” Anarchy asked him,  electricity spilling out of his eyes as he spoke. He was a god right now, so much power, he could snuff out all these guys in the time it took them blink. He could claim the bounty for himself, screw these D-Stringers.

“Only thing scary here.” Louis said flatly. “Is your fucking mullet, bro.”

There was a snorting sound to cover a laugh, Anarchy whipped around to look at Blitzkrieg and Mosquito. Blitzkrieg had managed to get his mask back on, to cover his smile no doubt. Anarchy growled, teeth grinding so hard sparks flew.

“You better hope these instructions need you in one piece shit heel.” Anarchy snapped looking at Louis. He reached out and took hold of one of Louis earlobes. “I can tear this whole thing clean off your skull, you get smart with me again.” He tugged gently and Louis felt as though, yeah he could rip it clean off with ease. “You gonna shut up?”

“Not likely.” Louis said, smiling the kind of smile that honestly made Anarchy want to pulverize his whole skull. “I got an ace up my sleeve.” He said turning toward the wreckage. “In about two seconds my brother is gonna climb out of there and make you all very dead. Unless you let me go, I can pay you all.”

Blitzkrieg looks at the group. “We’re getting a split of Forty Seven Mill, you think you can beat that?” The speedster asked. Louis looked at him and scoffed.

“Buddy I can give you all forty seven mill.” Louis replied. “I have a literal magic money genie that makes money for me all day everyday.” He looks at the group. At least some of them are mercenary enough to consider the payout. Blitzkrieg looks up at Cinderella, mercs looking at each other. Big pay day if they can get him free.

“Your bro is toast.” Anarchy spits. “Mosquito, tick, freakin, tock here! How do we get the money?” Mosquito checked her device when Louis buzzed. Everyone looked at him, The Blue Viper reached into a pocket and pulled out a bloody phone.

“Sacre bleu.” He muttered answering the phone. “Allo? Mr Niccals, he cannot come to ze phone he iz a little tied up right now.” There was a groan from everyone in attendance.

“Fucking lame.” Louis said before Blue Viper smacked him on the back of the head with the phone. “You get shit all, prick.” Louis snapped back in return.

“Shush!” He held the phone to his ear. “...Zey are saying the package is about to arrive.”

Just then behind the group a box slammed into the ground. A great colourful thing made of steel and wrapped in thick metal chains and padlocks. It looked like...a magic box, covered in suits of cards and bright flashy logos.

“What the hell is that?” The Mosquito asked getting closer, the chains seemed to shake and move for a moment. Then one of the chains lashed outward toward the burning tank then the box was torn from the ground. The group moved into a ready position watching the box hurtle back and rip into the burning circle Ms. Meta was in.

The box opened and closed, trapping Meta inside before it shot into the burning remains of the tank. The chunks of burning steel exploded backwards lighting up the sky as a booming voice cried out.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” The voice was booming and seemed to carry around the whole valley. “Or in this case...CHILDREN of all ages.” There was a man in the clear space, wearing a large red top hat and a pristine red overcoat. He adjusted sleeves of an immaculate onyx coloured undershirt as he walked forward, carrying the massive steel box with a languid ease.

Harry Redd walked toward the group. “I would first like to thank my darling assistant.” He popped the box open and Ms. Meta tumbled out, totally repaired and whole save for the pair of giant metallic rabbit ears she had poking out of her head. Her whole outfit had been warped into a tight clinging bodysuit and a pair of fishnet stockings. She seemed utterly confused.

“What the hell?” She said touching the ears.

“You have all upset me,” Redd snapped, “so I have decided for once...no more holding back. You want to fight Harry Redd at his best and with all his magic powers?”  He held out his arms the magic box spinning outward on one of its many chains like a massive yo-yo.

“Run.” Louis told the group. “Fucking run.” He advised again as he noticed Redd’s face was a gaunt tight mask against his skull. He was actually using his powers, full on reality warping was soon to be in effect. “I swear you kids have to run, he’s going to kill you all.”

“I’d like to see him try.” Anarchy rolled one shoulder and pointed to Redd a bolt of energy shot toward him. Redd tugged on the chain of his box, causing it to pop open. The energy went inside the box, which slammed shut. Redd spun around, the box lifting from the ground with ease before popping open. The same energy blast shot out toward the group now in the form of a massive wave. It towered over the road, a tsunami of lightening, casting a crackling cascade of power toward them.

Blitzkrieg, who using his speed was narrowly able to shove the whole team out of the way of the blast. The group turned and the whole road he turned to glass...stellified in an instant as far back as they could see into the night.

“Don’t be shy.” Redd said his voice twisting and crackling, sounding as though it was coming from all around them. “Step right up, I need a volunteer.” He beckoned with gloved fingers toward the group.