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Hotstepper Finale

Hotstepper Finale

Pov Shift: Seven

Seven ran from the tire. He noticed a ladder going up to the platform on the side of the platform. He then jumped onto one of the ladder’s rungs, and started climbing up. The tire was shaking the ladder, making it hard for Seven to go up. Pirello went to another ladder that went up to the same platform. The tire started pushing the ladder. Instead of it falling down, it started rolling. Seven looked up and saw that this was because it was a sliding ladder. Pirello kicked the ground to push his ladder towards Seven. He then took out his silencer pistol, and started shooting at Seven. “Pew…pew…pew…” Seven was narrowly dodging the bullets, moving around the ladder and holding on tightly. Seven was still climbing up, and when Pirello noticed this he aimed at the top of the ladder. He shot the two rollers that held the ladder up. “CLANK!” The two ladders slammed into each other, and Seven’s ladder began to fall. Seven jumped over to Pirello’s ladder, a little over Pirello. Pirello aimed up to Seven, and Seven kicked the pistol out of his hands. Pirello caught it with his foot, and kicked it back up to catch it with his hand. Seven quickly got up to the platform, and backed up against the wall. Pirello couldn’t see him anymore, and started climbing up the ladder. Seven then held tightly onto his grenade launcher, and aimed down at Pirello. Seven shot, but Pirello quickly dodged. The grenade went down to where the tire was, and blew up. “BOOM!” The tire was pushed up high into the air by the blast. It landed on the platform, and Seven started backing up. The tire then jumped at him. He pushed it away with his hands, which shredded his palms’ skin and made them bloody. Pirello climbed to the top of the platform, and the tire was about to be pushed towards him. However, a blue transparent wall had appeared that protected Pirello, and the tire bounced off of it straight to Seven again. It started ripping at Steven’s chest, and he pushed it off and ran from it. Pirello told him, “One last thing about my signature. It creates a barrier that has a circular perimeter. This barrier makes sure that everything but my tire can pass through. I can make it as big and as small as I’d like, though there’s little reason for me to do that.” Seven pulled out his flame thrower, and started heating up the tire that was chasing him. Then, “BOWWWWW!” The tire blew up. The burning rubber parts flew around. Some of the parts were blasted off the platform, others onto the two boys. Pirello brushed some of the rubber off of his face, and pointed his pistol at Seven. He tried to shoot, but the gun…was jammed. He threw the gun away, and mumbled, “Wonderwall…” He then took a grapeshot from his belt. The tire was almost finished reconstructing itself, but Seven was holding onto a bit of the rubber to make sure that it couldn’t fully reform. He shoved it into his pants pocket, and asked Pirello, “So you’re the Stem Assassin? Why…do you kill people?” Pirello responded, “I have nothing to discuss with you,” and ran up to him. Seven used his flamethrower to try to burn Pirello, but Pirello dodged and kicked the flamethrower out of his hands. He then kicked Seven off of the side of the platform. Seven held onto the hand railing, but Pirello smashed his fingers with a punch. Seven then used his other hand to hold onto the platform. Pirello tried to punch Seven’s hand, but Seven quickly grabbed onto Pirello’s arm. Pirello pulled his arm up to the rail, to make it hit Seven’s hand. Seven held on, though he was shaken by the hit. The rubber that was in his pocket fell out, and started going to the tire. Pirello tried to hit Seven’s hand off, this time pulling him onto the platform and punching his hand off his arm. Seven let go, since he was on the platform he didn’t fall. The tire jumped at him, but Seven ducked. Pirello looked over the railing to see the tire falling to the ground. Seven used the opportunity to push him off the platform. Pirello fell off, and started stabilizing himself in the air. He landed on the top of the airborne tire, and jumped back up. He kicked Seven in the chin, and landed on the platform again. He put on his gloves, and poured a solution on his hands. Seven picked up his flame thrower, and fired it at Pirello. Pirello took his two grapeshots, and jumped over Seven. The flames from Seven’s flamethrower had lit his two grapeshots, which he threw down on both Seven’s left and right side. Pirello landed, and took a few steps back. The balls inside then burst out, and Pirello told him, “There’s a difference between me and you…I have resolve!” The balls then started hurtling around Seven, many of them crashing into him in rapid succession. They were bouncing from the wall, ceiling, floor, and some even from the railing. He was bleeding all over, and tried to lean on the wall. But some were still hitting him. He remembered something that Marty was saying in the car ride. He remembered Marty saying, “So I was fighting that Stem Assassin, and he was fighting using these grapeshot things that shot a bunch of steel balls. They were hitting all over, and he had calculated them so well that he found a place to stand without getting hit by any!” Seven then thought to himself, “He’d be standing where he can’t get hit. So then…” He looked over to Pirello, and saw him unscathed. “If I could get in that spot, then maybe I’d avoid all of the shots!” He then ran through the speeding steel balls, which occasionally hit him. “First, I’ve got to get him out of the safe zone.” He then shot a grenade at Pirello with his grenade launcher. Pirello quickly rolled away, getting out of the zone. The grenade blew up in the distance, and Seven took his chance. He jumped into the zone, and looked around. None of the balls were hitting him. He then looked over to Pirello, who was slowly approaching. Pirello was moving carefully not to walk into any of the balls. Seven fired his flamethrower in Pirello’s direction, however Pirello dodged and punched Seven in the face. The balls started slowing down, and eventually all fell. Seven backed up, and pointed his flamethrower at Pirello. Pirello held his arm up towards the edge of the platform. The tire on the ground started revving up, and jumped up. It was about to hit Pirello, but it bounced on his blue barrier and hit the railing. It bounced from the railing to the platform. It tried going after Pirello, but the barrier blocked it. It kept trying to go through the barrier, circling around Pirello. It kept getting faster, and wind was building up around him. He almost looked like he was in the eye of a hurricane. Seven fired his flamethrower at him, but the wind was blowing the fire away. He tried to shoot a grenade, but it blew up before it reached Pirello. Pirello explained, “I’m making Hotstepper target me, but it can’t touch me because of my signature’s barrier. So it keeps trying and goes fast enough to make wind. The wind can block fire, and cause grenades to trigger with how fast it is. I’m practically invincible.” Seven looked at him, and once again asked, “Why do you kill people?” Pirello didn’t answer. Seven asked again, raising his voice, “WHY? ANSWER ME!” Pirello calmly answered, “You are in no place to ask that. You killed my only friend, Carlonoah.” Seven thought to himself, “He’s right…even though it was Felicity who dealt the final blow, ultimately it was me who fought him and got him weak…” Seven turned back to Pirello, “Well…I can answer. Even though killing is wrong, I had to because it was either him or me and Felicity. It was self-defense, and while I probably could’ve handled the situation better he was the one who was going after me…So I ask you again, why do you kill people?” Pirello thought about it, “Well…the money isn’t really of much use when I don’t use it…it’s not very exciting…I suppose…I have no reason.” “You kill people…for no reason?” “Yes.” Seven felt anger swelling up in his soul. “How can you justify stealing lives? You should know that it’s wrong!” Pirello stopped the tire, and grabbed Seven by the collar of his shirt. He picked up Seven and pinned him against the wall. He told Seven, “You think I care? I don’t give a damn about what’s wrong or right, I just want to be free. For once in my damn life! No more inheritance, no more organization, no more law enforcement! I just want freedom!” “You think you can be free…when you have such a distorted view on life? People are free to live their lives. To laugh and cry and experience a range of emotions. They laugh and love and cry…you just don’t get it do you? You aren’t the only one who wants to be free. By killing people, you are taking that freedom away from them. Don’t you think that’s unfair?” Pirello didn’t answer, and Seven got even more mad, “Let me guess, you don’t care? Well let me tell you something, in case you haven’t already found out.” He pointed his grenade launcher to the end of the platform, “YOU CAN’T HAVE FREEDOM IN THIS WORLD WHEN YOU’RE A FUCKING MURDERER!” He shot grenades at the end, and then the platform began to fall sideways. Pirello let go of Seven, and ran to grab the railing. Seven ran to grab it as well, before striking Pirello as hard as possible with his grenade launcher. “THUD!” The platform fell to the ground, along with Pirello. Seven slid down the now declining platform, and heard Iris’ shriek. He saw Pirello get up, and the tire started approaching him. Pirello stuck an open bottle of an odd liquid in between two of the tire’s spokes. Then the tire was pushed back almost completely out of the warehouse by Pirello’s barrier. Seven was about to shoot Pirello with his grenade launcher, but Pirello stopped him, “Wait, Seven. I have something to say. Your words…have moved me.” The tire started going around the circle perimeter, with the bottle’s liquid pouring out. “I am…a murderer. That’s…what I needed to hear.” “mmmm” The perimeter was getting smaller, and the tire was spreading the liquid even more throughout the warehouse. “My whole life, I’ve never thought about the consequences of my heinous behavior. But now I see…the actions I’ve taken can’t be erased…” “brmmm” The tire past Iris. “I truly cannot be free. A person who cannot understand the value of others’ lives cannot wish to freely live out their own…” “Brmmmmm” The tire past Steven, who just broke out of his capsule. “This world simply cannot move on…if bad people like myself are not punished…” “Brrrrrrmmmmmm” “I can’t understand you, nor your friends, or anyone else. My motives are malformed and only suit my own goals. I’ll leave you all be, and be free on my own.” “Brrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmm” The tire passed Seven, and he smelt the liquid. It was extremely familiar and smelt slightly…enjoyable to him. He then realized, “This…is gasoline!” “I’ll finally…be free. I’ll achieve my freedom from this world…INTO THE AFTERLIFE.” Iris walked up to Steven, wounded from her fight. Seven yelled to Steven and Iris, who were a little away from him but still visible, “STEVEN, IRIS, RUNNNN!!!!!” The tire circled Pirello’s feet, and ran out of gasoline. Pirello balled up his fists, crossed his arms across his chest up to his shoulders in an X shape. The tire started revving up on the ground, “BRRRRRRRMMMMMM” Justine looked up, and saw what was happening. She then made two metal plates on both sides of herself. “BRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMM” The tire revved up even faster, and some sparks were being made on the ground. One of them started going over in the direction where Filip was knocked out. The other went over to Steven and Iris, and quickly pushed them both out of the warehouse. As soon as they were outside, the metal plate disappeared and the warehouse was completely lit ablaze. Pirello stood tall, content with his death. He let out a small smile, before falling to the ground. Seven closed his eyes, thinking in his head, “Wonderwall…protect me…” He felt a heavy shoulder on his own. He looked up, and saw Justine leaning on him inside of a metal capsule protecting them from the fire. “J-Justine…You’ve had a change of heart?” He smiled, and Justine returned with a thumbs up. Justine told Seven, “Get to a wall. I’m moving this capsule out of the warehouse.” Seven got to a wall, with Justine still leaning on him. Justine moved the capsule out of the warehouse, where Steven and Iris were. She opened the capsule, and fell to the ground, finally unconscious. Seven told the two, “It’s all over you guys. We aren’t being targeted anymore!” He hugged both of them, “I’m glad we’re all safe.” Steven agreed, “Yeah, that was certainly something...I don’t even know where to go from that.” Iris told him, “Well I wouldn’t get comfortable. I feel like this isn’t exactly the last time our lives will be in danger. Justine was right in a way. With signatures things are gonna be a whole lot less safe.” She looked at Justine’s body, “Speaking of Justine, it’s time to play my favorite game: ‘Bring The Unconscious People To The Healer’ Hooray!” Ten minutes passed, and Mr. Noronake was driving back to school with 4 knocked out people in his car. “Well crap, I guess I should have expected something like this to happen when it comes to Justine,” He told the awake students. “Wait, what do you mean by that?” Steven asked him. “Well, in the other timeline Justine had always hounded me about the use of my signature, so I already knew with how you guys are that she’d freak out.” “Why didn’t you tell us?” “To be honest, that was almost 30 years ago…it’s hard to remember that much.” “Oh, speaking of that actually. I was thinking, did you have any crushes on any girls at the school before time traveling?” “Yeah, Iris.” The three students almost jumped out of their seats, “WHAT!?!?!?” “Yep. Don’t go calling the forces on me now, I’m a happily married man. Besides, that was 30 years ago.” The rest of the trip back was awkward for the students. When they returned, they got to healing the students. Iris checked the time on her phone, “Oh shit! It’s time for me to get to my date.” She asked Filip, “Hurry up and take these collars off of me.” Filip told her, “Hell no!” Justine ordered him, “Take them off of her.” He turned to Justine, “Why did you save these guys? You should have heard what Iris told me!” “Oh…to be honest I didn’t mean any of that. I just said it to rile you up…” Iris admitted. Filip sighed, “Really? Oh man, I’m really sorry about what I said to you…” Iris hurried him, “That’s alright, but not the issue here! Take these off of me already!” Filip turned the collars into the gooey black and white material, and Iris ran out of the hole. “See you later guys!”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Chapter 20.5: I x B Part 1

Iris rode her bike over to Festa Fantasia once again. She saw a bunch of firemen around the warehouse at the back. She didn’t mind it, and walked up to the entrance. She saw Beck standing in front of the door, with a blue diamond patterned tuxedo. Iris looked down to her casual clothing, and told Beck, “Wow. If I knew you were gonna dress fancy then I would have at least tried.” Beck responded, “It’s alright,” He added in a compliment, “You look good in that anyway.” They walked in, and ordered a table to sit at. They went to the table, and before Iris could sit down Beck stopped her, “Wait wait wait,” He pulled her chair out for her. “Thanks…” Iris said, before sitting down. Beck sat in his seat as well, and then they both were silent. Beck started twiddling his thumbs, and Iris started tapping on the table. She then decided to start a conversation, “So, Beck, how was your day.” “I-it was…fairly uneventful. Oh, I met with Marty earlier today. He was fighting against THE Ignited Justice. Man, I wish I could’ve gotten his autograph. Oh, wasn’t Ignited Justice going after you as well?” “No, I was fighting against someone else.” “Did you win?” “Only by a hair.” Beck froze up, “You said that on purpose…didn’t you?” Iris shrugged, while smiling, “I don’t know, did I?” She looked at the single strand of hair that Beck let out from his bowler hat. Beck looked around, and asked her, “Please don’t talk about…The Issue.” “Why not? Why is it an issue?” “I WILL not talk about it. Hmph!” He picked up his menu, and redirected the conversation, “Wow, there’s so much here. I think I’ll just take...spaghetti bolognese. Yeah. And what do you think you might get?” Iris picked up her menu, and looked. “Umm…I guess I’ll take…lasagna.” “The food better be good!” Beck looked out the restaurant window to see firemen, and asked Iris, “Was the warehouse burning down…” “Yeah, we were involved. But we weren’t the ones who burnt it, it was this assassin who killed himself.” “Woah…tell me more.” “Well, do you remember when Saturn said that he was luring me in? Well that was because his assassin idol had ordered him to. And that assassin ordered 5 people to kill us. The first changed sides before she began, the second was killed by the first, the third was Saturn, and the fourth and fifth switched sides after losing.” “This brings up a question, Iris. When you came to my mountain, you were looking for the Mountain Killer, yes?” “Yeah, why?” “Well, your signature allows you to see far distances when your eyes are closed right?” “...yeah…” “Then why didn’t you use it to find the Mountain Killer?” “I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t think of it.” The waiter came, and the two told him what they were gonna order. Iris continued the story, and when she was done, Beck told her, “What a story. Your life is so lively.” He held Iris’ hand, “Iris, I want to be part of your life.” Iris responded, “I’m not too sure about you yet…After all, what was it you said after I said no to being your girlfriend… ‘That’s 47 now.’” “ 57. It was 57.” “Yeah, well how am I any different from the other 56 girls you’ve asked out? I’ve thought about it, and it makes me feel like I’d be replaceable in a relationship with you. And besides, isn’t that Beverley girl already with you?” “...Beverley is just a childhood friend. I’ve asked her out before but she doesn’t want me. She only calls me babe and stuff like that to make me want to fight her.” “That sounds backwards.” “Well, it’s complicated.” “I’m still waiting for an answer to my first question. How would I be special in comparison to all the other girls you’ve asked out?” Beck was silent. He then answered, “I’ll treat you special. I’ll give you all of my time and affection. I swear on it Iris!” “...I don’t really believe you.” “I mean it. If I ever break my promise, break my thumb! I want you to do that, so you can hurt me as I hurt you. Okay Iris?” “Ha, that’s a little weird but…I kind of like that idea.” “So anyway Iris, do you like listening to music?” “Yeah, I love music. What about you.” “Same. I especially like The Burgundy Blacks.” “Really now? Who’s your favorite from the band?” “Hmm…it’d probably be Merlot.” “Really? I like Currant the best. Maybe that’s because he’s my older brother.” “What?! Wait, Currant from the same Burgundy Blacks that made hit songs ‘No Tag’ and ‘Slow Eater!’ That Currant?” “Yeah. That one.” “Wow. Well umm, who’s your least favorite member. Mine is definitely Crimson.” “Same, he tries too hard to be edgy but it just doesn’t work.” “I know right? And he can’t even sing that well either. I swear he ruined ‘Blood Circle’ with his verse.” They continued talking, and when the food came they finished it all. Then, the waiter came with the check. “FUCKING $134.99?” Beck exclaimed. The waiter told him, “Great Western Food Day ruins the food industry, so we have to bounce back by raising prices an absurd amount.” “ABSURD IS RIGHT! HOLY SHIT. WHERE’S THE MANAGER?” “The price is non-negotiable.” “We can split the check,” Iris told him. “NO! I’M GONNA PAY THIS…just give me a minute to contemplate how I got into this situation…” 5 minutes later, Iris and Beck came out of the restaurant with $134.99 less on them. “They’re some criminals Iris! They must’ve planned that out.” “Yeah, that was unreasonable.” Beck and Iris both hopped on their bikes, and started riding to the school. “So umm…Iris, have you considered…having me as your boyfriend?” “I don’t feel like I know you enough yet…I think we should go on…two more dates to decide, okay?” Beck nodded his head and balled his fist, “Alright, Iris! We’ll go on two more dates, and I’ll prove my love for you!”