Micheal sat at an old wooden table in the Shogun’s house, The Shogun was seated to his right, and on his left was Mikayla, leaning over the table.
“Okay, how are we going to stop the Shadow Core?” Mikayla asked. “Actually, I have a better question. How do we stop the Shadow Tyrant?”
“Um, who’s the Shadow Tyrant?” Micheal replied
“Shadow Tyrant leads Shadow Core. Controls hivemind,” The Shogun said.
“What he said. Now, whatever we try, we can’t do it now, we need to eliminate any third parties,” Mikayla explained.
“Who should we get rid of?” Micheal asked.
“We need to get all of the district wardens of hell off our backs, and then anyone else who opposes us,” Mikayla replied. “Who are your enemies?”
“Well, I think Nightmare Jackk and Captain Jack don’t like me,” Micheal said.
“Those are both district wardens, and Captain Jack is an unavoidable issue now. Anyone else?”
“Um, there’s the cowgirl angel lady. I think her name is Jill,” Micheal answered.
“Of course, you went to that place,” Mikayla shook her head.
“There’s also Ivan, but I think he is part of the Shadow Core. Oh, and a bear and skeleton named Teddy and Skulls. They seem out for me on behalf of something called MATM,” Micheal continued.
“Teddy and Skulls shouldn’t be a big deal. They’ll really only try and get you if they find you. MATM, well, they aren’t all that great, but they’re so big that we’ll fly right under their radar,” Mikayla said.
“Wouldn’t we also fly under the Shadow Core’s radar? They seem around the same size,” Micheal said.
“For now. Once we get to the part where we have to face them we’ll definitely be their biggest issue,” she said.
Throughout the conversation, The Shogun kept quiet.
“Do you have anyone we need to get rid of?” Micheal asked The Shogun.
“No worry about me, young one,” The Shogun responded.
“You don’t have any enemies?” Micheal questioned.
“No, I simply cannot leave my realm,” The Shogun answered.
“Why not?” Micheal asked.
“Long time ago, I take away my realmwalking, sacrifice for protective barrier around this realm. It stop anyone with bad intent towards Shogun Noryki or its people, but in return, I stuck here,” The Shogun said.
Micheal nodded.
“So, Micheal, you got any ideas on how to bring all your enemies together and get rid of them? Doesn’t have to be permanently,” Mikayla asked.
“Maybe I could challenge some of them to a dual? And then make them kind of fight each other?” Micheal said unsurely.
“I have an idea,” Mikayla said.
**The Next Day**
Micheal stood in the center of the street, awaiting the signal. He was what Mikayla called “a generic city world that isn’t important.” Somehow the multiverse generated thousands of these, and people never thought them important.
“Is anyone here?” Micheal called out.
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His voice echoed through the empty city streets, and no reply came—a tumbleweed rolled by him.
“Where did that even come from?” Micheal scoffed as he sat down.
Eventually, Micheal began to meditate. He didn’t know how much time had passed, but slowly, black and red smoke began pouring onto the street from an alley. Mikayla had forgotten to give the signal.
In the densest concentration of the odorless, shadow-like smoke, a heavy thud cut through the silence of the lonely city street. Micheal didn’t move, nor react to the sound.
Ominous and barely audible, clip-clops followed, and the tell-tale orange glow of the feared horse’s mane and eyes were becoming increasingly visible as the smoke cleared. Nightmare Jackk had arrived.
But Jill hadn’t, forcing Micheal to revise his plan on the spot while he climbed to his feet, pulling himself out of his meditation.
‘Shit,’ Micheal thought. ‘He must’ve shown up early. I guess I’ll get to test that technique Mikayla helped me think of.’
Jackk’s head suddenly twisted to look straight at him. “Oh, Micheal. Ya done gone and made a pile o' mistakes mighty quick. Y'er comin' with me, partner.”
Instinctively, Micheal’s body flinched in memory of his initial encounter with the petrifying man and his horse. Still, he snapped back to reality, throwing the hilt of his blade onto the ground, activating it simultaneously.
‘This better work.’ He hopped onto the now floating blade, wobbling as he almost lost his balance.
‘Focus,’ Micheal thought. He managed to regain his balance as Jackk approached Micheal faster, the horse transitioning from a walk to a quick trot.
“Go. Go! GO!” Micheal commanded the blade with urgency.
Nightmare Jackk was closing in on him. Micheal cleared his mind from his brief frustration. ‘I am centered. I am in control. Now it’s time to get a fucking move on.’
With those thoughts, the blade rocketed backward, taking Micheal with it. Micheal threw his arms to the side to maintain his balance. ‘Shit! It’s facing the wrong way.’
He quickly flew past Nightmare Jackk, who whipped around as he continued to follow Micheal. Micheal turned his head to see where he was going and saw a light appear from the sky and he heard a choir start singing. ‘Where the hell is that coming from?’
Jill slowly materialized under the divine light, flowing gracefully as if she had come from heaven itself. She landed lightly, as if she had been set down, and looked towards him.
“Well, hello there, Micheal! Nice of you ta invite me somewhere. Now’re you gonna hand over that blade of yers?” Jill said.
Micheal sped right past her without a word and turned into an alley. Jackk was still hot on his heels and Jill was flying behind Jackk, slowly catching up.
“That kid is mine Jackk! The blade belongs to heaven!” Micheal heard Jill shout.
“The blade's mine fer the takin'! Ain't no way I'm lettin' you snag it!” he heard Jackk retort
Micheal spotted a ladder extending from the roof of a building, grabbed his sword, and quickly started climbing it. Once he made it onto the roof he began pulling the ladder up onto it. ‘Hopefully this delays Jackk.’
He decided to take a quick breather on the roof. He was about to sit down when he saw Jill soar past the rooftops. He got back up and started running again. He leaped from rooftop to rooftop, poorly saving himself from breaking something with some nicely timed rolls. ‘I should’ve done more gymnastics when I was a kid.’
As he ran across the rooftop of a hardware store, called “Bowe’s”, he turned his head towards his pursuers. Jill was catching up. But then he had an idea, ‘What if I…’
Micheal threw down the blade and activated it once more. He hopped on and rode it off the edge of the rooftop. He slammed into Nightmare Jackk, knocking him off his horse, and sped through an alleyway. Jackk wasn’t moving. The nightmare nudged him a few times, and he stayed down. Micheal smiled, ‘One down. Although it wasn’t to plan.’
When he turned back around Jill was in front of him. He stopped.
“Well, it seems you’re at the end of the line,” Jill raised her gun at him.
Then he heard Jackk’s voice. “Y’all’re both at the end of the line.”
He could sense that Jackk had a gun pointed at his head as well. Micheal raised his hands. ‘I guess this will go to plan.’
“Shoot me. I dare you,” he spat to both of them.
“So be it,” they said in sync.
Micheal ducked and closed his eyes. The sounds of gunfire went off for a brief moment before shrieks of pain erupted from the two wardens. He opened his eyes to see both wardens, on the ground, incapacitated.
Jackk had a hole in his forehead, white lines slowly spreading outwards. He occasionally spasmed, and his horse was nowhere to be seen. His eyes had turned a pure, fluorescent orange, with no pupil or sclera. Jill had rag-dolled onto the pavement, wings bent at unnatural angles. She had a bullet wound in her chest, red and black lines spreading outward through her clothes. She had a vacant look in her eyes.
“What did I just do?” Micheal thought aloud worriedly.
He grabbed their guns and any spare ammo they may have had and tucked them into a satchel that Mikayla had given him. He placed their hats over their faces, revealing that Jackk had short black hair.
He did nothing more for them before he left that realm in a cloud of white smoke.