A/N: A quick fix, you can imagine Flare as a normal Fire Bro, but I see him in Paper Mario TTYD form.

Chapter 2: Strahovlada

Flare anxiously crept through the wrecked downtown, trying to avoid shattering glass under his shoes as much as keep his heartbeat from beating out of control. He still couldn't remember anything apart from his name and his species, and if the only way to get it back was by meeting this evil Strahovlada, he'd just have to take the risk.
He stumbled over a fallen road sign and fell to the ground, before again retching more blood onto the streets of the downtown.
"What is wrong with me?" he croaked, his throat burning and mouth full of blood. He took a moment to gaze at his surroundings. He was in a typical modern downtown, full of glass apartments and skyscrapers. However, the downtown area was pretty much what a postapocalyptic downtown would look like. Most of the large, glass windows were smashed in on the buildings, some had partly or completely collapsed, the streets were cracked and littered with rusted car shells, smashed glass, bent and broken lampposts, puddles of sewage or chemicals and most disturbingly, more dead bodies of humans, Koopas, Goombas and other creatures, with their blood and a few internal organs spread around them.
Flare's stomach knotted up and he felt queasy. He noticed that most of the dead bodies had a similar pattern. Most of them were cut from their throats or stomachs.
"Wh..who did this?" he breathed nervously.
"I think you know perfectly well." A raspy, seductive, snake-like voice spoke from behind him.
Flare knew that voice. He tensed, and slowly and shakily turned around, when he saw who was standing behind him, he let out a low shriek and his legs started shaking violently.
He stood next to a living nightmare. Her body was human from the waist up, with decomposing, lifeless grey skin that was covered in blood and had crumbled or was crumbling partially in some places, while from the waist down she was serpentine, with her long, scaly lower body dragging along the ground, trailing a trail of acid that burned into the street. Her arms were skeletal, with rusted, broken chains tied to her wrists, one on each side at least six feet long. But her faced scared Flare the most. She had loose, stringy brown hair, her eyes were blue but were glowing unnaturally bright, her face was printed with tattoos of blood showing pictures of torture methods, while below her nose her skin was completely decomposed only showing bone, with her teeth curved into a frightening, evil smile of knife-like teeth.
Flare only felt sheer terror, probably on a new level of terror, to this evil demon in front of him. He slowly backed up, hyperventilating and still shaking violently.
"Wh..what do you w..want from m..m..me?!" he stammered in absolute fear. His voice was shaking and quickly turning into more of a squeak, and he could do nothing to stop it.
The evil demon slithered closer to him. "I am Strahovlada." she spoke, her mouth not moving from her fixed evil smile. "I am the spirit of Terror and Torture. And you, Flare, shall be my next victim."
This only increased Flare's terror. He flicked his hands, trying desperately to summon even a flicker of fire power, but his power still wasn't there or wasn't responding. Strahovlada laughed, a nightmarish sound that chilled Flare to the bone.
"How pathetic." Strahovlada mused. "A Fire Brother that cannot control fire. You must be playing me in a foolish game, little boy, because I can sense your power.
"I don't have any powers!" Flare squeaked in desperation and fear. "Please, you're mistaking me for someone else! I must be just a normal Koopa in a Red helmet! I can't even remember who I am!"
Strahovlada raised her hand and pointed her finger at Flare. Flare felt his body temperature decreasing, and he retched another load of blood. Strahovlada froze the blood in midair with her hand and drew it towards her. Two of Flare's other retched blood puddles that had turned into bloody slugs also were drawn to Strahovlada.
"Liar." she hissed with evil satisfaction. "I shall let you know that these puddles are pieces of your soul and memory. And I promise you, you will never get them back." She lashed out with her chain, which struck Flare at his knees. A searing pain flew up Flare's legs, cutting his left knee and causing it to bleed open. Flare screamed in pain and dropped to the ground, putting his arms out to prevent him from falling on his stomach. Strahovlada's chain lashed out again, wrapping itself around Flare's arm and threw him against the ground-floor window of a nearby office building. Flare crashed through the glass, shattering the window into millions of razor-sharp shard, some which pierced Flare's skin, causing him to bleed even more.
"I am only playing with you, Flare." Strahovlada said with pleasure, saying Flare's name with a hiss. Flare unsteadily got to his feet and tried to run, but Strahovlada's chain caught him again, and tossed him into a mound of dead Goombas. The dead bodies didn't act as a cushion for Flare, who flew straight through the corpses and crashed back-first into the concrete wall behind him, splattered in blood. Flare collapsed to the ground, but still managed to stand up shakily.
Strahovlada's smile twitched. "You still dare to stand up?" She hissed in anger. "Perhaps you will make an interesting torture specimen. I will be amused to see how long you can last.
Flare's knees buckled. He didn't want to become an evil demon's guinea pig, but he couldn't gather anymore strength to even stand. He was bleeding from his nose, knees and hands, wishing in vain that his fire power would return, but the fire was gone. He couldn't see Strahovlada bring he chains up once more, nor did he see the chain lash out and connect to the side of his face. His sight was filled with a violent flash of white, then he blacked out.

END OF CHAPTER 2.

Another A/N: Anyone who wishes to favorite and follow this story, please do it soon because by the next chapter this story will be rated M and it might be harder to follow after that.