POV:MARKUS
I ran like hell as soon as Richard told me what the game plan was, carrying Martin as the hammers were still recovering from the blast of ice and the fireball. I felt the wind rush past as my feet thumb against the ground holding Martin in one arm at my side kinda remind me of when I played football just with the potential of people dying. The room I entered was empty with nothing to grab or hide behind so it has its advantages and disadvantages. I dropped Aiden in front of the door as he quickly pulled out the circular device and attached it to the door and a little screen popped up on it as he started typing.
The large hammer with the battle axe rushed into the room followed by a couple clones of that smaller hammer. They definitely had the numbers advantages plus weapons but from what I can see each of the clones prefers to use a different weapon. I’m also guessing that the Hammers axe is super heated at the edge so I don’t have to worry about that. But I do have to worry about Martin since there trying to stop him from unlocking the door,
“Martin, how long is it gonna take you to crack that thing open?”
“I don't’ it could be five minutes it could be twelve just depends if you can keep them off my ass or not”
“I can do That” I crack my knuckles as I still couldn’t believe I was gonna fight one of Forges Hammers, one of their Trained evolved with actual good tech but since they're only wearing grunt gear I bet these guys are noobies.
I get into a boxer’s stance putting my left foot backwards as I put my right one forwards and I hold my arms up. Surprisingly even though the hammer could have attacked me any moment it seems like he's waiting no, watching me trying to figure me out. The hammer starts walking towards me at a leisure pace, I guess he’s done watching. I start walking towards him matching his pace as when we meet in the middle of the room he immediately swings his axe at the right side of my head.
I step forward and drop down a bit causing him to decapitate the air behind me as I hit him right in the liver with a heavy hook. He gets launched into the wall on my right embedding him into and before he can even remove himself from the wall I grab him by the face and slam further into the wall. I then rip him out of the wall, pull my arm back and throw him into the clones knocking several of them down. One of the clones finally decides to attack as this one has a pair of serrated knives. It rushes towards me as it throws one of its knives. I shoot my hand up and catch the blade crushing it in my hand. The clone using my moment of distraction leaps towards me and swipes at me, nicking me across the chest. I try to grab it but it spins to my side trying to stab the knife into my ribs.
I immediately turn and slam my elbow into the clones cracking their helmet and as soon as their stunned I hit them by their head and punch them right in the face. the helmet shatters as my fists collide with their bare face, shattering every bone in it as the momentum continues as their head bursts open like a watermelon drenching my fist in blood. I immediately turn as I see another clone fire a shotgun at me but I quickly lift up the headless clone in my hands as the pellets turn the front side of their body into mince meat.
Two more clones rush forward one with a hammer and the other with a crossbow? They fire a bolt at me as I lift up the body I’m still holding as the bolt pierces it sending some blood droplets onto my mask, I throw the body as the clones roll out of the way. The one with a sledgehammer hits me right in the knee as it kinda stings a bit but no real damage as I weave out of the way and throw a jab right into their chest. Their chest cavity caves in as they fall to their knees and I grab them and use them to block another bolt. I hear some revving as I see one with a chainsaw of all things rushing at me screaming at the top of their lungs. I drop the clone's body and as I sidestep a downwards strike as they spin around and swing at my left side. The swing was wild and uncoordinated so I could see it a mile a mile away so I simply lifted up my hand and grabbed the chainsaw blade.
I feel the blade dig into my skin as a bit of blood trickles down the blade as I squeeze it a bit and the blade stops. The clone tries to pull the chainsaw away from my grip but it doesn't budge as I kick them right in the crotch as I hear a pop and they fly into the sealing and just hang there. My pants leg is covered in blood…….ew crotch blood and I just rip that part of my pants leg.
I go to turn around but I feel something stabs into my cheek. I poke the object with my tongue and taste metal or is that from me tasting my blood? I turn to see the clone with the crossbow as they're quickly reloading. I break off the tip with my tongue and pull out the bolt causing blood to pour down my neck but luckily enough it doesn't stain the hoodie Blake made, Thank god.
I start walking toward the clone as they fire another bolt but it's not as fast as before as I put my hand in front of the bolt. As soon as the bolt impacts my hand it shatters, coating my hand in pieces of metal as I shake the shards of metal off my hand as I walk towards the clone as they load another bolt in panic. When They finally load the bolt I’m already in front of them “drop it” they slowly point it at me “no” and try to pull the trigger. I sigh as I grab the crossbow and crush it in my grip as I lift up my fist and bonk them on the head like a dog. But unlike a dog the top of there head cracks open spraying blood and gray matter onto my first as their neck stabs and the bones shard shot threw their neck spraying blood as it shatter even further as there head goes further into their body as skin rips and tears as several piece of bones stab through head. Even I had to admit that was a bit much as the body fell to the ground with a thud. After a bit the bodies turned to dust including the blood covering my hands. That easy to easy so I turn and the hammers getting back up and I’m not surprised one bit.
“Uuuugh I have admit you hit pretty fucking hard” The Hammers cracks his neck.
“Ok round two here we go” I roll my eyes as he sprints towards me with blinding speeds and swings at me with a lot more force then before.
I step back as the axe only cuts my a bit but with that same momentum and they hit me right in the calf with a low kick. I grit my teeth as I actually felt that as they go for another swing as I’m able to catch the axe blade. The edge burned with heat as the blade cut into my hand a bit as I knocked the axe to the side as I hit him with a cross and knocked his head to the right as I grabbed his head and headbutt him. His helmet gets a large dent in it as his right lens shatters as he stumbles back. I rush forward as he goes for another swing but I quickly weave out of the way as I enter his blind spot.
I hit him with another hook to the liver but it only sends him back a foot as he coughs a bit “damn you really got a really good hook I still felt that”. Definitely an enhancement, maybe activation based explains why he’s stronger but there is definitely something else going on him guess I gotta make him show it.
Instead of rushing at me again he spins around and throws the axe at me. I duck as the axe slams into the wall behind me as the hammer rushes towards me and goes for a knee to my jaw. I grab his knee and squeeze until I hear a crack but it doesn’t stop him, he seems happy? He goes for a simple straight punch as I grab his fist and break it too. I stand up and force his leg to up and as I spin him into the air and kick him right in the chest as his armor takes most of the force but still knocks him back.
He slowly stands up “hehehehehe come on is that all you got!? HURT ME MORE!” oh god he’s a masochist. He runs towards me again as he goes for a tackle but I slam my palm right into his face shooting his head back as I grab him by his shoulders and knee him in the gut. I then lift up my elbows and slam them on his shoulders as I feel them cave in as his shoulders. This forces him to his knees as I twist my hips and pull my right arm back and hit him right in the side of his head cracking his helmet then I pull back my left fist and slam it into the other side of his and I repeat the process for a minute straight.
His helmet shattered but I kept punching until his face was a blood mess until my hands drench in blood and his face was just one big bruise. When I’m finally done I couldn’t see any details of his face except that he had long brown hair, a bushy beard and was of Spanish descent. But his eyes were swollen shut, his face had multiple bleeding bruises and his teeth shattered and stabbed into his gums. I gently poke him as he fell backwards with a loud thud as I turned around and walked over to Martin .
“How much more time do you got until your able to open the door”
“I still need a couple more minutes this system just so complex and there are so many fucking firewalls!” I pat him on the back.
“Well I’m gonna go help everyone else deal with the duplicator yell when you're done” Aiden gives a thumbs up but I hear rapid steps behind.
I immediately turn around but it's too late as I feel an axe dig into my shoulder as blood sprays across the side of my face as I stare into the hammers eyes. His eyes were pitch black and pupils as I could see the bruises on face slowly disappear as he grinned at me with a row of shiny white teeth. So he just has regeneration, It wasn't that he was strong or durable, just able to use a hundred percent of his body's strength and quickly heal from the muscle damage. Probably passive unlike who has to actually heal herself explains his reckless fighting style.
He grins at me as moves the axe like a hacksaw as I grit my teeth as I feel my muscles tear and as more blood gushes out as I pull back my head and slam it into his launching him back as the axe rips from my shoulder as blood sprays across the ground. I feel hemostasis immediately kick in as my injury stops bleeding. I turn to see Martin looking up at me.
“Before you say anything I’m fine really”
“but yo”
“Its ok just keep hacking and keep an eye on this for a bit” I take off my mask and hoodie and gently place it next to him
“Blake work real hard on it so I don't want it to get destroyed” Aiden nods
The hammer rips off his armor as he is wearing a pair of sweatpants and a muscle shirt under teeth. “Come on HURT ME MORE!!!!” We rush towards each other as he goes for a hook. I duck under it and tackle him, knocking him into a wall. I then jab my fingers into ribs as I feel the flesh as I grab his ribs and break them in my grip. Blood sprays onto my hands as I try to rip them out but get knees in the chest as I feel the air actually get knocked out of my lungs as I start gasping as he uppercuts me knocking back words as I feel blood poor from my mouth. Finally he shoulder checks me into a wall as he’s smiling like a mad man as his rips sink back into his body.
Ok he’s definitely getting stronger but it seems to be in only specific places my best guess is that whenever he gets hurt and heels that area he healed comes back stronger probably why he keeps saying hurt me. It’s definitely temporary or he would be much stronger then he is most likely he does have a limit on how much he can heal just have to push him to that limit. I spit out some blood as He runs towards me and goes for another hook but I quickly sidestep him and hook him right in the side of the head as it only moves his back just a bit.
I grimace as he goes for another punch but I slap away as he goes another and another but I keep smacking away his strikes. As eventually he backs away and grabs his arm and rips out of the socket, spraying blood against the ground as bone grows from his socket then followed by muscle, then veins, then his flesh. He then grabs his other arm and with ease rips it off spraying more blood across the ground. He then picks up both his arms and rushes towards me once again as he swings one of his dismembered arms like a club.
I tried to block but he swung it at blinding speeds and slammed it into the side of my face knocking my head to the right as he slammed the other limb into the other side of my face. Seems the bigger the injury the stronger the boost makes sense but I’m understanding his power more and more. I feel my bruise as he keeps hitting me in the face but slowly the speed at which he attacks becomes slower as I catch both arms and squeeze them hard enough to cause them to explode into a bloody mess covering us both.
He knees me in the gut once again but it seems to hurt less as I grab him as my hands shoot much faster. As I lift him up and slam him into the ground cracking as I lift up my foot and stomp onto chest over and over as he vomits more blood. Eventually the floor finally gives in as we fall into the floor below us. It seems to be a kitchen as I feel him grab my ankle and threw me into a sink shattering all the dishes in it making small cuts all over my face.
I grab a couple glass shards and slam them into his mouth before he could fully stand up and I then grab the top of his and slam his chin into the ground shattering the glass shredding his mouth. I then drag him across the ground and slam his face into the oven, a little window shattering it, I then pull him up and slam into the ceiling as he falls into the ground. I then walk over to a fridge, pick it, walk over to him as he tries to get up once again but slam the fridge on him. Blood slowly pools from under the fridge as I take a deep breath and take a couple steps back as 3 2 1. He bursts from the fridge as he throws a milk jug at me as I slap it away he runs towards me again. He jumps into the air, spins and kicks me in the side of the face and when he lands he elbows me right in the nose.
I stumble back as I grab my broken nose and snap it back into place as he runs over to a drawer and pulls out two long knives. He leaps towards me and stabs the knives into my shoulders as I fall backwards . He grins as he twists the knives in my shoulders as he lets go of them, lifts up his fists and slams them into movies causing them to go deeper and deeper. He goes for another slam but I grab his wrist as I put my foot on his chest as I push on his chest and pull his arms.
He laughs as I kick him away from me, well most of him as I drop his arms and stand up. “Hurt me more come on rip and tear until I’m nothing but mince meat” I Look around and spot a frying pan laying on a rack I grabbed it as his arms regrow and he’s already going for a blinding jab. I weave out of his strike and slam the frying pan into his wrist, denting the pan but breaking his wrist and I shoot out a low kick. My leg hits against his legs, shattering them as they bend forward. I didn’t damage his legs in a bit so they didn’t get as strong as his arms. He falls forward as I slam the frying pan into his head, breaking the pan but denting the back of his skull. His hands spring up onto his feet as he throws a barrage of punches each one of them connecting, causing me to spit out more and more blood until.
The punches do get weaker as they hit as they also got slower again too as I weave through his strikes and punch him right in the gut. I punch straight through it, coating my arm in blood as I feel his entrails slowly pour out but he lifts up his fist clasp them together and slams them into my head as he quickly moves behind me and wraps something around my necks several times .
I look to see he’s using his own entrails to choke me as it gets tighter and tighter it gets harder and harder to breathe. I slam my elbow into his side multiple times but he doesn't seem fazed as he pulls tighter and tighter everything starts to get slowly blurry. But suddenly it becomes less tighter and tighter until I flex my neck muscles and the entrails snap. As soon as it snaps I grab him by the shoulders and him in front embedding him into the ground as the building shakes a little.
He tries to get up but I lift up my foot and stop his head in first caving in his nose I stomp again shattering the bones in face then I stomp again as I feel his skull break and I stomp again as I feel his turn to mush and I keep stomping until there is nothing but a bloody pile as he stops moving and after a couple seconds his head doesn't seemed to be growing back a I limp towards the hole to where Martin is as I jump through it. When I land I see Martin standing in front of an opened tungsten door with the biggest smile on his face.
“Finally you opened that damn do” Before I could finish my sentence I felt something stab into my gut as I turned to see The hammer with a new head slowly regrowing all the hair on it with a big grin as I looked down and saw a chainsaw going through my gut. I vomit blood as I fall down to my knees fuck I guess he knows how to do delayed regeneration should have thought of that.
He tries to twist the knife but I just flex my abdominal muscles as I grab him by the head and slam the back of my head into his nose, knocking him back. I stand up and turn to Martin “just get the tech and we can get the hell out of here” he nods as he runs into the room as I turn to the hammer. He smashed his fist into a wall over and over until his hands were a blood mush as they quickly healed and instead rushed like before he leapt into the air. He digs his hands into the ceiling and handsprings towards me.
“FOOT DIVE” he yelled at the top of his lungs as I lifted up my arms in a cross guard and blocked the attack. I feel the ground crack beneath me as I shove him off but he quickly lands on his feet and rushes forward at blinding speeds. I barely could react as I tried to hit him with a jab but he ducked under my jab, grabbed the knife in my gut, ripped it out and slashed me across the tendons. I’m barely able to stay on my feet as my toes rip through shoes and dig into the ground and I feel something poke into my back as I turn and see he tried stabbing me in the back but it seems the knife didn’t go that deep.
I try to back hand him away but he catches my arm and quickly stabs into my wrist and drags the blade up my arm. I try to grab him but he’s already to my side as he stabs me in the side as before I could even turn he’s already stabbing me in the thigh. He keeps moving around me trying to stab me in the vitals but it seems my muscle density is too much for the knife. Once again he seems to be getting slower or is it that I'm getting faster? Whatever, what’s important is that I can see him coming.
He goes to stab me in the solar plexus but I put up my hand palm forward and the knife shatters against my hand. I then shoot palm slamming it into his face as I run forward slamming him into the wall over and over and over. He tries to punch me in the liver but I grab his wrist and crush it in my hand and I dig my thumbs into his eyes. As I’m gouging his eyes out he knees me in the crotch as the intense pain forces me to let go as he grabs me by the face and hits me with a heavy hook. I felt several teeth shoot out of my mouth as he went for another punch but I opened my mouth. His knuckles hit my teeth as I felt some cracks but I chomp down on his hand taking a nice chunk out as I kick him in the gut and knock him away.
I chew part of the hand in my mouth and swallow, I hope this gives my power the materials it needs to give me the edge and end this fight. The hammer who had already covered leaps at and starts headbutting me. I feel blood start pouring from my forehead as I grab his wrists but with a yank he rips them off. More blood sprayed across my face as the bones in his slowly started to heal but it stopped as a set of spike-like bones were formed as he struck at my neck.
I flexed my neck as the bones pierced the skin but stopped at the muscles breaking but they kept regenerating as they started slowly piercing through the muscle. I grabbed his arms and I was barely able to keep him from fully piercing my neck. “This was fun but the thing is no matter what you can’t kill or take me out so JUST GIVE UP!!” He pushed with all his might as slowly he broke through my grip as but before he could rip my throat out there was a loud ZAP as electricity coursed through his body as I turned and saw Martin jabbing a stun baton into the Hammers spine.
“Your welcome” Martin said with a smirk as I Let go of the Hammers arms and uppercutted him into the ceiling. “You got the item?” Martin nodded as The hammer fell from the ceiling “just let me finish then we can help everyone and get out of here” Martin stepped back as the hammer slowly got up as he spit out some blood and I hope one last time rushed towards. I took a deep breath as I felt an acidic taste feel my mouth as I lifted up my hands. The hammer threw a flurry of punches but I caught his fists and when he tried to get out of my grip I spit in his face.
The spit was a dark green and when it hit his face it started to burn his face. He started to scream as the acid traveled down his face and his chest burning and deforming the flesh as he tried to wipe it off with his arms but only ended up burning them too. Eventually it stopped burning as he was one ugly mother fucker now as he threw a punch at me but it was much slower now as I catch his fist and easily crushed it in my grip.
I then grabbed him by the back of the head and pulled him into a headbutt shattering his nose as Then hit him with a hook knocking out most of his teeth. I then gently pushed him back as I ran forward and hit him with a close line, flatting his nose and shooting his head backwards. I quickly turn and get behind him and wrap my arms around his waist, lift him up and suplex him into the ground. His head is embedded into the ground as he slowly tries to get up once more. I sigh as I grab him by the ankle, pull him out of the ground and slam him into the ground. Then I Lifted him up and slammed him into the ground again and again until he stopped trying to get up and I let go of his ankle.
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“H-how did y-you stop my healing?” he kept spitting out blood as I lifted up my hand to his face “simple I adapted” and I flicked him in the head knocking him out. I stood up and turned to Martin.
“Ok we can go now”.
He gave me a worried look now “you have multiple stab wounds in vital areas, How are you not dead?”.
I shrugged “I don’t know, I still don’t really understand how my power works most of the time” Martin sighed as he held up a backpack.
“I got the device”
“What is it?”
Instead of saying anything he just opened the bag and there was a pitch black sphere covered in sickly green lines “I have no clue on what this is”
“Me either but that's important right now, we gotta get everyone and get out of here” Martin nodded as we quickly when to leave the room but before we left I spotted the Hammers axe on the ground contemplated taking but after a second I decided not since it probably has a tracking device in it.
When we entered the room where everyone was fighting the duplicator and what I saw well it worried me. Ryan and Sam were standing near the back of the room, most fine a couple scrapes and cuts, nothing to worry about but Richard was a different story. It wasn’t that he was badly hurt, a couple cuts and tears on his hoodie but nothing too bad. What worried me was that he was covered in blood and dozens of the Duplicaters clones, each one mangled or ripped to shreds.
Another thing I noticed was that his hands were in that weird Steel clawed state but were longer a light gray but now a scarlet red and the metal wasn’t smooth but jagged and spiked. He was ripping through more and more clones as he was trying to get to the Duplicator. He was acting more like a beast or a butcher as he tore through flesh and bone like butter or bashing the clones into bits as he constantly turned to attack clone after clone in an endless bloodbath.
Sam and Ryan noticed us as they smiled as I pointed to Martin's bag as Sam started walking towards Richard . “Hey Richard I know you're having fun but we got what we came here so stop fighting and let's get out of here” When Sam got close to Richard he immediately spun around and shot a claw towards her face without even thinking. I felt everything slow down as I could see the claw going towards Sam as I immediately ran forward. I couldn't let her get hurt, not on my watch. As I got closer the claw was about to cut into her face as I reached out and grabbed Richard's arm and blood dripped to the ground.
POV SWAP:RICHARD TIME:SEVERAL MINUTES AGO
I immediately had to dodge a hail of bullets as the crowd's clones flooded towards us. Ryan the second the clones moved forward fired chaos as he got knocked back a bit as the scarlet bullet punched a hole through the crowd. “Holy shit!” Ryan yelled as a smile formed on his face as he started to aim once again and fired.
As another scarlet bullet pierced into the hoard of clones me and Sam ran forward, hoard fights my favorite. A clone with a battle axe was the first one to strike aiming straight for my head. The bat moved slowly towards me as I quickly swiped my arm outwards as my mace smashed through and a second later the scarlet shockwave came with it. The second shockwave shot out the clone was flung into several more behind them as with a second of hesitation the other clones ran over the other clone crushing them in their rush.
As they rushed towards me I quickly moved my mask up a bit, took a deep breath and fired a blast of wind blasting the clones across the room. They all quickly got up and ran at me again as even more clones joined them. I sighed as I feel like I’m going to understand why mom hates cloning as a power after tonight. As soon as the hoard got within five feet of me I shot forward and slammed the mace into a clone with a revolver knocking them into the ground as the shockwave knocked away several others before they could even use their weapons.
I jumped to the side as three clones shot at me as I took a breath and shot a stream of lighting causing them to violently shake and fall as the lighting coursed through them. Before I could even take a second to breath a CRACK! Shot through the air as I turned and saw a ship going towards my face. I bent backwards as the whip cracked above me and I was met with the sight of a shotgun, Is that a shotgun or are they just happy to see us?.
I smacked the shotgun to the side as the pellets shot into two clones behind me knocking them to the ground. The clone who tried to shoot me was flung into several others by a scarlet shockwave as I immediately stood back up. I then immediately had to jump backwards as a stun baton was swung at me then I had to duck as a battle axe nearly made me a foot shorter.
I kicked the clone with a battle axe in the gut as they were knocked back a couple feet as they held their stomach in pain. I could hear several bullets shoot through the air behind me as with a quick leap I jumped over the bullets as a clone had fired into the crowd with an assault rifle.
I stored my mace as I fell back to the ground as I summoned several ball bearings into my hand and threw them at different clones as I fell to the ground. The little pieces of metal could knock these guys out or break their helmets but not only do I have to use less force due to my still recovering body but my kinetic gauntlets are currently being used by Sam so I can’t charge them either. Welp time for something more old fashioned as I summoned a pistol and took aim as soon as I landed.
Even though the ball bearings did no real damage to any of the clones but it did make them stumble and stagger and that is all you need in a fight with powers. I quickly spin around in a three hundred and sixty degree motion as I unload the clip. I knew the helmet was definitely the strongest part of the armor along with most of the plating being most likely being heavily resistant to small arms fire. So I aimed for the unarmored parts, specifically the joints.
The bullets didn’t fully pierce through as the body suit these clones war seemed to be made of some sort of enhanced kevlar but the bullets still did their work. The force of the bullets still crack and damage the joints causing a lot of them to drop their weapons or fall to the ground there from pain or losing some function in their limbs.
A clown with a limp arm ran at me firing a revolver and every single shot and when they ran out of ammo they were already in front of me. My smack them over the head with my pistol then I stored the pistol, grab them by helmet and slam them into several more oncoming clones. I heard several beautiful cracks as they got slammed into the crowd. I summoned another mace into my empty hand as the clones quickly formed a circle around me.
Finally deciding to be smart they charge at me as I quickly lift up my solutions to crowd up into the air and slammed my maces into the ground in front. The scarlet wave shot forward and crashed into the charging clones in front of me, shattering the plates on their armor and probably some bones as a path was cleared in front of me.
I felt my feet become more solid and cold as they became steel and I leap forward as I threw several explosive ball bearings behind. BOOM, I heard the explosion as most of the clones were heavily burnt and the ones that weren't were still on the ground and dazed. I took a deep breath as I unleashed a stream of sub zero winds as I turned all the clones in front of me into statues. I took a couple steps forward and slammed a mace into the ground as the shockwave shattered and turned all the ice statues into an icey dust.
I took a second to rest as I felt my legs were already pretty strained from the constant movement, need to slow down a bit. I looked around and saw Crowd wasn’t creating any more clones; he was just leaning against the wall tossing a knife into the air. So either he was just messing around with us and wanted to draw this out as long as possible or he had a set amount of clones he could create or his cloning is stamina related.
Well for the time being I’m not getting attacked by a horde of clones with a large variety of weapons so I decided to see if Sam or Ryan needed my help, they didn’t. I realized something about Sam. She was an amazing fighter but normally that doesn’t matter in the world of powers because even a non enhancement or mutant type still are physically stronger than a human but with technology you can breach that gap, once again amen.
Sam was doing great against the horde of clones, she weaved through all of their attacks only getting a couple cuts or nicks here and there. Even when she couldn't dogged she used the kinetic gauntlets to counter any attack that would have hit her. She was even better with her offense throwing out jabs when they charged at her. Hitting them with a heavy hook when she counters them or disoriented them to a strike to the chin. Even with her counters she used their own momentum against throwing them to the ground or even just throwing them over her shoulder. Hell with the added strength of the kinetic gauntlets she could even use nerve and pressure point strikes letting her get even more hits in.
Ryan wasn’t slacking off either, Every shot he made he didn’t miss constantly punching holes into any clone that tried to just shoot Sam or sneak attack her. He even shot them in the hands making them drop their weapons making it even easier for her to take them down in a strike or two. They took care of their share of the horde pretty quickly as once again the crowd was left alone.
“That was easy” Ryan said as he studied every detail of chaos.
“I swear to god if you jinx us I will shove that gun up your ass” Sam wiped some blood off her hands as she glared at Ryan.
“Please don’t” I said as I didn’t want to clean that thing if she was serious.
Crowd started doing the classic slow clapping “well seems you guys are lot more confident then I thought”
“Thanks” Ryan was quickly punched in the shoulder by Sam
“But yeah that means I gotta take you seriously and kill yo” They immediately jumped out of the way as an orange bullet exploded the wall behind them.
“Yeah none of that monologue bullshit” Ryan said as he blew smoke from the barrel of chaos.
I shrugged as me and Sam immediately ran towards Crowd not giving him a second to think. Sadly he was a quick thinker as several clones already started popping out of him. The first clone had a flame flower and as soon as they popped in there was already a wave of flames coming towards us. I fired a blast of water to counteract the flames as steam erupted between me and the clones as the flames and water clashed.
I was already over powering the flame thrower but before I could do anything the clone's head exploded as Ryan gave me a thumbs up. Sam had already rushed past me as soon as the flames were taken care of striking one of the just formed clones in the throat causing them to instinctively grab their throat. She then grabbed their weapon and pointed at the other just formed clones, it was a double barreled shotgun and she pulled the trigger.
The clone head splattered against the wall as the rest of their brain mattered splattered against the ground as blood spurted from their half stump of a head. As soon as they fell to the ground Sam immediately turned the other clone around and snapped their neck.
Crowd immediately started running away from us as clones started popping out of them as they tried to make distance between me and Sam. But once again the clones were taken out before any of them could do anything as Ryan fired another explosive shot into them.
Crowd once again tried to start spawning more clones in a panic but sadly Me and Sam decided to make their day worse. I grabbed Sam by the arm and started quickly spinning around as when I let her go she launched towards Crowd. She tackled Crowd and immediately started bashing their head into the concrete as Crowd's helmet started breaking pretty quickly.
“Should we stop her?” I asked Ryan.
“Nah, beating the shit out of people with powers makes her happier” Sam was repeatedly slamming her first into Crowds liver as I think I got a bit more scared of her, I’m just more aroused.
As Crowd was probably reminiscing on his life choices and how he got into this situation I saw him stab something into his arms and as he dropped said object I saw a needle file with droplets of a neon blue liquid, Giant's blood. I immediately ran forward to grab Sam but several clones had already slammed into propelling her backs ever feet as a horde quickly formed from the amp up Crowd.
The horde rushed towards Sam as I summoned a railgun into my hands and fired into the horde as Ryan quickly followed after. We ran forward as we kept turning the clones into bloody chunks. The flow never stopped as Crowd just kept popping out more and more, Luckily Sam had recovered and rolled over to us.
“Ok we need to hold these guys off until Mark and Martin get a device” Ryan said as he shot who was aiming a sniper rifle.
“That's gonna be much easier said than done” Sam muttered as I saw her holding her gut.
Well The solution to our problems is pretty simple take out crowd so I aimed the rail gun at him and fired. Nearly a dozen clones pop out of the crowd blocking the shot as a blood hole was put through the wall of duplicates. I sighed as I handed Sam the rail gun and summoned the maces back into my hands.
“Watch my back” I said before rushing towards Crowd. Range attacks won’t since the crowd is constantly spewing clones but in melee they're a lot easier to hit but I’m gonna have to get through their hoard of clones but I think I do have an idea.
As bulleted from behind me and in front of me rushed past me I turned my feet to steel as I leap towards the ceiling as I threw one of maces into the crowd and before it could hit could hit the ground I threw my other mace into it as they both hit each other then the ground. I dug my claws into the ceiling as the triple impact caused blithe maces to unleash a massive scarlet shock wave knocking most of the horde away hell even Sam and Ryan had to jump back.
Crowd used a set of clones they spawned from their back to keep themselves up and not launch away. With an opening now I pushed myself off the ceiling towards Crowd as I stabbed him with my claws. Well I stabbed into a half form clone of Crowd. “Idiot” Was the only word Crowd said as a flood of loans slammed into me.
Several fists, a couple metal bats and a comically large hammer slammed into me as I got knocked back. The clone with the large hammer rushed at me as I pulled out the glass from earlier and smashed it over there head. It barely even affected them as they swung their hammer at me. I swipe my hand out as my steel claws easily cut through the hammer and the head of the clone as both fell to the ground. A fountain of blood sprayed onto me coating my mask and part of my hoodie in crimson as the rest of the horde rushed towards me.
Sam and Ryan were already firing shots taking out a couple clones. There was still a shit ton of them but it’s still something. I took a deep breath as everything slowed down further as I fully extended my still claws to half way up my forearm as it became a lighter gray and my claws became more like blades.
I ran forward as I immediately swiped left my arm out at a set of clones with swords. My claws cut threw their swords like butter as with another swipe I gave them new airways as blood poured from their throats. Before they could even fall to the ground several more clones already replaced them. I sidestepped a stun baton as before I could attack the clone I felt something wrap around my neck. I looked down and saw a chain and turned to see several clones pulling on it trying to choke me out.
I quickly ripped through the chain with one swipe of my claws but it was too late as a stun baton was already slammed into my gut. For a couple seconds I felt my body freeze up, I felt my muscles lock and my mind kinda go hazy but my instincts kicked in and intensively turned my stomach to steel as I regained full control over my body once again.
I quickly twisted my hips and hit the clone that tried shocking me with a simple straight punch. When my left fist impacted with their chest I felt their chest cavity instantly cave in as the plates dented into their chest and blood filled their helmet as they were launched straight into a wall and nearly went through it.
I spun around and saw the group that tried choking me running at me. Two of them were shot dead by Ryan and Sam but the last two got in my range. One tried firing an auto shotgun at me but with a breath it froze in their hands. I quickly grabbed them both by the throat and dug my claws into there throats before the other one could use their hatchet.
I spun around and threw the bodies into the horde knocking down the horde as I heard several steps coming towards me. I went for a slice but the clones had already ducked and slammed two maces into my gut and I quickly realized those two maces were mine. I felt the scarlet shockwave crack several of my ribs as it threw into the same wall where I punched that stun baton clone into.
I tried to get up but several clones started jumping onto me trying to hold me down as the rest of their friends started to dogpile me. I tried to shove them off as I was able to knock a couple off but without being able to use my full force I couldn’t get all of them off as they quickly covered me.
I fell to the ground as I could hear Sam and Ryan trying to shoot them off me. I felt the clones repeatedly hitting me trying to beat me to death as I took a deep breath and fired out a blast of pressurized water. The blast cut threw the clones like butter as I quickly turned my head, cutting threw most of the clones holding me down as I was able to pull away from them.
I quickly spun around and slashed at the other clones, quickly turning them to mince meat. I took a deep breath as I stared at the claws and the blood covering them and looked around at the blood remains all around me. I could smell the sweet blood as I licked my claws and I wanted MORE. Immediately rushed forward at a fresh batch of blood bags as I leap forward. While in the air I grabbed the blood bag by the head and used the momentum and my strength to take the head with me as I landed. I took a nice bite from the head as I slammed it into a charging blood bag with a cleaver caving their skull in.
A blood bag tried jumping on me again but this time I shot out my clawed hands, grabbed them by the shoulders and slammed them into the ground as their head got stuck in the ground. I grabbed them by the leg and ripped it off as I took a nice juicy bite out of the thigh “tastes like chicken”. The other blood bags stopped in their place as I started to see the inner workings and see all the juicy parts.
I dropped the leg, “the leg, my favorite part of the chicken, sadly doesn’t last long, well that doesn’t matter when there are so many of you!”. The little chickens decided to be brave and run towards me and sadly brave little chickens were still chickens as I rushed threw them and tore them to shreds. I ripped ones arms off and used them to caved in two other chickens skulls in. I dug my hands into another one's sides and ripped their ribs out, not my favorite part but still good. I licked the bones clean as I then launched them into the throats of several more chickens. Some got hit in the skull and got the easy way out while others got hit in the throat and got a taste of their own sweet blood.
I looked towards the mother hen who kept spawning out all these delicious little chickens and ran towards them. The mother hen spawned an ocean of little chickens, ah there giving me a gift. I jumped into the crowd of little bite sized morsels and immediately dug my claws into them.
They were even easier to carve through, with only a single swipe as I had already carved through several and when any of them tried to hit me in a blind spot I immediately spun around and struck at them. As I ripped through the endless sea of little chickens I felt my claws grow and become just as beautiful as the blood as the more sweet blood I got the stronger not only claws got but my body got. I became a butcher as I carved threw multiple little chickens over and over spilling more sweet blood painting the ground in a beautiful scarlet hew. I tore through chicken after chicken, ripping them shreds in what felt like an endless cycle of slaughter as I was constantly spinning around to slice into the next little chicken.
Eventually the sea started to dry out as less and less chickens kept coming as I heard several steps behind me as I immediately spun around to sink my claws into the next juicy little chicken. As soon as I spun around I saw pink? wait Sam! I tried to stop my momentum but before I could I felt a vice grip around my wrist stopping the momentum of my arm completely. Sam was saved well except for a bit of claw cutting into the cheek of her mask causing some blood to drip to the ground. I turned to see who stopped me and saw Markus who looked like he just got back from jumping into a wood shredder. “Chill out” was the only thing he said as he let go of my wrist.
“Jeez Mark what happened you look like you just fought a five foot 3 angry Canadian” Ryan asked as he ran over.
“The one with the axe was a lot more trouble than I thought but he has been dealt with also we got the device” Markus said as he pointed to Martin who held up his backpack.
“Fuck yeah now lets get out of here before Mr duplicate decides to mob rush us again” Ryan said as he pulled out a smoke grenade and threw into the middle of the room as Crowd tried send another horde.
Smoke covered Crowds half of the room as I could hear coughing as I could see the silhouette of spawning a couple clones at a much slower rate then before guess it was a less potent version of giants blood. As we ran out of the smoke I noticed that the blood covering my body slowly turned to dust leaving me perfectly clean out of sight out of mind. Even my weird looking blood red spiky claws returned back to normal as it went from bloody red to a stainless steel out of sight out of mind.
When I turned my hands back to normal I winced a bit as a couple bruises and cuts had already formed, guess that's a consequence of going a bit crazy, again. I shook my head as we got to the window “ok Sam get out the rop” Martin to speak but was immediately cut off as Markus grabbed him and Sam “screw it” jumped out the window. Me and Ryan stood there for a couple seconds as he spoke up “so I guess gotta get on your bac” I grabbed him and chucked him out the window as I hopped down myself quickly afterwards. As soon as I hit the ground I grabbed the groaning and ran to the van with everyone else. Sam unlocked the back as I threw Ryan in.
“You guys are back, is everything ok, did the guys you fight have any cool powers or costume? It sounds like it was pretty crazy in there, lord what happened to mark!” Blake spoke a word every second as Markus covered her mouth.
“Everything is fine but can you please heal me? I can feel my intestines slowly falling out” Mark said as Blake gave a little salute as the white glowed from her hands and envelop Markus completely healing him but leaving Sam a bit exhausted.
“So I guess you kids have fun made any new friends” Aiden asked as he raised an eyebrow.
“Just shut up and drive” Sam said as she took off her mask and wiped some blood off her cheek.
“WAIT!!” Blake yelled “I gotta do something reeeeal quick” She said as she quickly ran out of the van, pulled out a spray can and drew a large scarlet eye on the front of the Forge building and jumped back.
We all stared at Blake with a questioning look “what? It’s so people know that the Scarlet Beholders were here and totally rocked!” She had the biggest smile on her face as no one said anything and Aiden started driving.
I slowly tried to relax my sore body but I heard a loud thud. I sighed as I used my x-ray vision to see some guy in some bloody muscle shirt and his face and arms looked melted and he was holding an assault rifle.
“Hey Markus there's some guy in bloody pajamas and a melted face holding an assault rifle, friend of yours?” Mark sighed.
“He’s the big guy with an axe from earlier. I melted his face and slammed him into the ground” I nodded as I opened my mouth and fired a small bit of lighting into the roof.
He stopped in place as I could see him get pretty burnt up as he slowly stumbled backwards near the back of the van. Markus hearing the footsteps got up and opened the back of the van, reached his arm out and grabbed the toxic avenger reject and pulled him off the roof. He quickly grabbed him by the neck, pulled back his fist and punched him right in the dome. His pop like a watermelon leaving the man a foot shorter as he tossed the body out the back of the van as he started wiping the blood off his face.
“Jesus Mark” Sam muttered as she stared at Mark with hints of respect?
“I didn’t know you had it in you” Ryan said nonchalantly.
“I swear if you got blood in my car I will beat your ass!” Aiden yelled.
Blake was completely silent as her eyes widened. She was slightly shaking “y-you ju-just killed h-him” She constantly was stuttering as she was completely in shock.
“Oh there not dead there regenerator and pretty good one at that just wanted to take them out for a bit” Everyone sighed as Sam tossed Markus a towel to wipe the blood off his face as I noticed something. Blakes eyes glowed a bright blue for only a couple seconds and returned to normal as I looked at the motionless headless body on the pavement slowly shrinking as we drove away. I'll keep note of this.
After a bit of driving and some horrible lip syncing on Ryan and Aiden’s part we finally arrive at the hotel. Everyone quickly took off their gear as I simply just stored my mask and hoodie and switched into my black skull hoodie. Blake fell asleep so Sam decided and when I tried to wake her up Sam gave me a death stare so Markus decided to gently carry her to the hotel.
I noticed Sam was slowly rubbing the cut I gave on her cheek “hey I’m sorry about”
“It’s fine” I could feel the annoyance in her reply as she didn't even look at me.
I couldn't blame her since I did kinda go crazy and nearly claw part of her face off so I just left her alone. I needed to find someone to talk to about these new powers of me and the group that related to this hell, maybe find out what the hell is a holder besides the obvious.
SO I told everyone that they could celebrate without me and that I’ll be heading home. I made sure to take back chaos and the kinetic gauntlets to the dismay of Ryan anf Sam. Everyone except Sam who was still mad at me and Blake who was asleep waved me off as I got into my truck and drove off. I started thinking about who I could talk to about what's going on with me. Mary was a no go since she was just as clueless as me, Mom and dad are much more confident and even worked with Steel Drake but if they knew any of this they would have already told the rest of the vanguard.
After a minute of thinking I finally thought of someone who could at least give me some good advice if not tell me what's going on with me. I was gonna call her anyways, might as well call her for this. As I quickly stopped in front of my house, pulled out my phone and dialed my new favorite hero and auntie Nosferatu, let's just hope she can help me.