“Alright Colonel,” Razor says with a smirk, “Lead the way!”

He & Colonel Frank Walker are standing in the sewers right underneath The Golden Wing Casino. Two parallel elevated walkways are in the sewer as the raging murky greenish waters rage below them. From up in the casino, Anastasia, Katina, Dmitri, & Tire hops down into the sewers below.

“Ugh, it stinks,” Tire comments as he holds his nose in disgust, “Hope the stench doesn’t stick to my jacket. I spent a fortune on it.”

“Why did you bring an expensive jacket on a mission?” Frank Walker questions before sighing, “Whatever that’s beside the point, let’s get a move on!”

The group of six make their way through the large interconnected sewers, following the trail Elephy left behind.

“Be careful, one wrong step and you’ll be whisked away by the rapids,” Anastasia warns before commanding, “Katina, you go on ahead and let us know when you find the monster.”

“On it Petrova!” Katina shouts.

Katina closes her eyes before proceeding to transform into her blast state; her entire body is now a red gelatinous version of itself. She then opens her eyes before beginning to bounce from wall to wall down the sewer until she turns the corner.

The group run down the sewers after her as they look for any more signs of the monster. However, Katina quickly gets far ahead and out of sight.

They come across large dents in the walls, trails of puss, some destroyed money, and the footprints left behind by the creature.

However, when they reach a fork in the road, the group looks around.

“Damn it, which way do we go?” Razor asks.

Luckily his cry is answered by the sounds of distorted trumpets echoing down the right, so they follow the noises. As they trench further and further through this maze of a sewer system, Dmitri spots several soldiers firing down a corner up ahead.

“We’re getting close!” Dmitri announces.

With the group now reaching the small platoon, Razor realizes that Katina is nowhere in sight. But before he can call out her name, the spunky female bounces out from the other hallway and hides behind the corner as a pachinko machine flies past them. The machine hits the wall before falling down into the sewer water below.

Tire & Frank Walker look at the wall that now has a massive crater in it. Razor peeks around the corner to see that, yes, the giant hulking monster is there. Though now its tusks have been stained red with the blood of others. Next to the ferocious beast are several machines and piles of money taken from the casino, as well as the kid it took with; Jessie Gavagan.

Jessie is lying next to the monster with a look of complete fear and defeat in his eyes.

The monster roars which sounds like the blaring of several distorted trumpets before it uses its trunk to suck up a machine and then shoot it out toward Razor.

“Woah!” Razor yells before he gets behind the wall just in time as the machine zooms by where his head just was.

“We need to be careful not to get hit,” Anastasia remarks.

“Thanks for the sagely advice Anastasia,” Dmitri sarcastically remarks, “It’s gonna be super easy to dodge them when they’re going at that speed and can pop your head off in an instant!”

After hearing those words, an epiphany strikes Razor as he thinks back to when he first awakened his blast.

When he fought Abdulov, he kept on shooting fireworks at him, which created explosions so powerful one’s body would be ripped to shreds. And yet, in that form of his, he was able to withstand it all without a scratch.

“I’ll be the bait!” Razor suggests, “I’ll activate my blast and tank the hits so you guys can get closer to that thing!”

“DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH OR SOMETHING?!” Tire yells, “Why do you think you’d be able to survive THAT?!”

“I managed to survive all those fireworks from Abdulov, so it’s worth a try,” Razor says.

“That could work,” Anastasia says before adding, “But will you be alright?”

Razor smirks and cockily remarks, “All I gotta do is just stand there while using my blast, right? To me, it sounds like you guys would be doing all the hard work.”

“In that case, you and Katina will be the distraction while Dmitri, Tire, & I will go for the kill,” Anastasia explains.

Everyone nods in agreement as Razor closes his eyes. He takes what Katina told him to heart as he focuses on transforming. He takes a deep breath in, then a deep breath out before suddenly opening his eyes as his pupils start to glow. He then transforms from his regular human state into his metal blast state. Razor goes to catch his breath but as he does so, he notices his voice sounds more echoey than it did before. Furthermore, when he looks at his now metal hands, he notices that they look incredibly sharp.

“Woah,” Razor gasps.

Anastasia looks over and asks, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m alright,” Razor replies as he takes it all in, “I just still can’t believe it y’know.”

“Well, you better start believing quickly because we gotta go, now!” Tire shouts.

Razor nods as he looks to see Katina is already bouncing from wall to wall getting the monster’s attention. Razor runs out from the corner and starts running towards Elephy as well with Anastasia, Tire, & Dmitri following close behind. The monster starts to shoot out giant snot balls of money and machines from its trunk and they all hit Razor. These all cause him to be pushed back before he can move forward again. Though after every hit, the ruby on Razor’s chest begins to glow brighter and brighter as his chest begins to burn.

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Dmitri surprisingly manages to reach the monster first just as it sucks up another pachinko machine into its trunk. Dmitri however grabs the monster’s trunk and begins to tie it together while Anastasia pours sand out of her pouch and blows on it, forming a giant sand hammer. She uses the hammer to slam down onto Elephy’s head, causing the monster’s head to burst open with the trunk exploding as well. Tire manages to get to Jessie and grab him before getting a safe distance away from the monster.

“Alright!” Katina excitedly shouts.

However, her excitement is interrupted by the now headless elephant-like monster beginning to run around frantically, smashing into the wall, spurting out green sickly blood, before it falls into the sewer water below and is taken away by the current.

“Damn it!” Anastasia shouts.

Since Razor is further back than the others, he can see the monster floating towards him. Razor looks below at the raging sewer rapids below him.

“Screw it,” the soon-to-be regretful Razor sighs as he jumps onto the monster.

Landing on the creature, the two are sent all around the sewer’s raging rapids.

The two beasts toss and turn through the waves all the while the current slams them into wall after wall. Each slam causes Razor’s grip to loosen on the creature. However, after regaining his grip, Razor begins to get closer and closer to the headless area of the monster. The ruby on his chest glows brighter and brighter as he climbs.

Looking at the headless creature, Razor ponders how the thing is still even alive before remembering what Anastasia told him after she killed the serpent beast. If you want to truly defeat a monster, you have to destroy the core. Otherwise, it’ll keep on living.

Begrudgingly, Razor grabs onto the monster’s neck and looks inside its body as he shouts disgusted, “WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!”

As Razor squints, he notices a dark red orb with veins and muscles attached to it just barely visible in the creature’s body. The monster tries to shake him off causing Razor to scream, as he does so the ruby on his chest begins glowing so brightly that it looks white.

In a flash of light, a red beam of energy shoots out from the ruby on his chest.

Before it can react, the laser goes through Elephy, leaving its only remains as the monster’s legs.

The raging sewer rapids begin to calm down until the water is finally still. As Razor floats on the still water, he turns back into his human form with a look of shock on his face.

“I can do that?!” Razor exhales.

As he floats through, he spots Katina in her gelatin state bouncing from wall to wall and landing on the platform next to him.

“About time they cut off the current!” An exhausted Katina gasps before seeing the monster’s remains and asking, “WAIT HOW DID YOU DO THAT?”

“I don’t know!” Razor shouts before asking, “You need a hand?”

Katina, still catching her breath, returns to her human form as she breathes, “No I’m good.”

After finally catching her breath, Katina snarkily replies, “And besides if anyone needs a hand it’s you, Razor.”

Razor is taken aback by her statement before he remembers something…

He’s floating in water.

Water that’s filled with sewage.

Water that is also filled with the now-deceased monster’s bloody remains.

“Oh,” Razor utters.

_______________________________

A while later outside The Golden Wing Casino, Razor is standing by the entrance with Anastasia, Dmitri, Tire, Katina, & Frank Walker. The cleaning crew and paramedics have arrived and are entering the building. As that happens, however, Razor looks over to see Jessie sitting by himself, all alone.

“Poor kid,” Razor says, “where are his parents?”

“From what I overheard the paramedics say, he lost his a week ago,” Anastasia remarks, “Kid was supposed to move in with his aunt and uncle today but he got chased by a monster before that could happen.”

As Razor looks at the kid sitting on the bench, he decides to walk over there. However, to his surprise, Tire also comes with him. As Jessie sits there, he sees the two walk up to him.

“Hey there,” Razor says in a friendly manner, “My name is Razor and that’s my friend Tire, what’s your name?”

“It’s Jessie,” Jessie replies.

“Well Jessie, there’s no more scary monsters around so tell me… how are you feeling after everything? You doing okay?”

Jessie scoffs as he replies upset, “Look, I get what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to make me feel nice and say that ‘it gets better eventually’ but it doesn’t! Everything in my life just keeps on getting worse and it won’t get better anytime soon… So just…”

Tears begin to fall down Jessie’s face as he says through his tears, “Just leave me alone…”

As Razor stands there, at a loss of words, not knowing what to say as Jessie continues to sob.

Looking at Jessie, Razor can’t help but think of when he was younger. Back when he was told by so many people about how you just need to ‘toughen it out’ that ‘things get better’ and ‘don’t cry, it’s okay’.

Those words never resonated with him back then, and they clearly don’t resonate with Jessie either.

Back then… the words he wanted- no, the words that he needed to hear. The words that Jessie needed to hear would have been something like…

“You know what kid, maybe you’re right,” Tire remarks.

Jessie looks up at Tired confused, “What?”

Tire continues, “Maybe your life really will just get worse from here on out. Maybe it’s all just one huge downward spiral that will leave you feeling miserable forever. But so what?”

Jessie stops crying.

“Even if life will keep beating you down again and again, you’ll keep getting back up. Wanna know why?” Tire remarks, “Because you’re Jessie Gavagan, the strongest kid to ever exist. If there’s anyone who could show this cold world a thing or two, it’ll be you.”

Tire takes off his expensive black paisley bomber, and places it onto Jessie as he remarks, “Here, take this.”

“Wh-why?” Jessie questions.

“Because regardless of what happens from here on out, you’ll have that jacket to help remind you of this moment,” Tire finishes, “This one moment where everything turned out okay.”

Hearing those words, Jessie breaks out into tears once more, only this time it isn’t out of sadness. This time, it’s something else. Despite all of the pain and suffering he’s gone through, Jessie looks up at Tire with a smile on his face.

“I will,” Jessie cries, “Thank you.”

The paramedics motion for Tire and Razor to move as they place Jessie onto a hospital bed and take him into an ambulance.

But as the doors to the ambulance close, Jessie shouts, “I’ll wear this jacket every day until there’s a moment in my life better than this!”

Tire smiles as he waves goodbye to Jessie. The ambulance doors fully close and then it drives off.

“Tire…” Razor says, stunned.

Tire sighs as he groans, “Man, I don’t know why I did that, I spent so much money on that jacket… geez, if that kid tosses that out I’ll be so mad!”

Razor begins to laugh as Tire looks at him shocked.

“What? You laughing at me?!” Tire yells upset.

“No, no, it’s just… I didn’t think you were the type to be so kind,” Razor remarks.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

As Razor and Tire discuss, Frank Walker notices the man reading the newspaper is still there, sitting on a nearby bench. Frank Walker walks over and sits down next to the man. The man sets his newspaper aside revealing himself to be none other than Nikita Agapov.

“So, how’d they do?” Nikita asks.

“To be honest, I expected all of them to do well. All of them except the new guy,” Frank Walker begins, “But he proved me wrong. Your call to enlist him was the right one. I must say I learned a lot from this whole ordeal.”

Razor, Tire, Anastasia, Dmitri, & Katina are chatting amongst themselves as they enter the RV.

“Good, now you do realize while this was a review about how they did,” Nikita begins, “It was also a chance for me to review how well you are as a colonel.”

Frank Walker gets a bit nervous as Nikita begins his critique by saying, “While you definitely had some hiccups and missteps along the way – such as not listening to complaints from any of your subordinates – you overall did an alright job as colonel and I can tell both you and Razor learned a lot from all this. If you improve on what didn’t work and keep what did, I know that you’ll be one of the greatest colonels this country has seen.”

Hearing all of those compliments causes Frank Walker to blush as the RV begins to drive away.

“Thank you, sir,” Frank Walker replies flattered.

The two look at the RV as it drives off down the street, just as the sun starts to rise.

And it’s at that moment Frank Walker realizes something.

“Wait, that was supposed to be my ride back,” Frank Walker says.

“You can always take the bus,” Nikita suggests.

“And deal with this city’s horrid public transport? I’d rather die,” Frank Walker groans.

Nikita laughs before saying, “What you call horrid I call the city’s charm.”

“To each their own I suppose,” Frank Walker remarks as he stands up.

“You got places to be?”

“Yes sir, I need to head back before the 9 o’clock meeting. It was nice chatting with you Agapov,” Frank Walker concludes.

“Take care!” Nikita replies.

As Frank Walker walks away, Nikita looks towards the sunrise as he starts to see a bright future ahead of all of them, a future spearheaded by those willing to do the right thing. Whether that future comes to fruition or rots away, Nikita isn’t sure.

Yet regardless of where the future lies, he at least has this memory to look back on.

A memory of when everything turned out alright.

See You Next Chapter!~