Streets of Toronto
Chapter Four
The Subspace Highway. A place littered with oversize, blue bricks, and golden blocks of roughly the same size, that housed varying amounts of Canadian currency, waiting to be snatched by those who wanted to claim it for themselves. The utter surrealities that were flying piggy banks aimlessly soared through the air, also housing Canadian currency. Floating busted clocks and several cactus plants embedded in the flat sand were also dotted about the area, which was overlooked by a purple moon, partly obscured by stray bits of 8-bit coding.
Blaze Fielding was at a complete loss for words.
In all her years of. . .life, pretty much, she would've never imagined anything like this. And that was saying a bit of alot. She'd faced kangaroos that fought like humans, savage mutants, even seen a man live as a brain in a freaking jar, for Christ sake. But all that suddenly didn't seem all that abnormal right now. Reason being? She'd set foot in on a Subspace Highway—a weird one at that.
"This. . .is so. . ." Adam slowly started, trailing off as he gazed around at his surroundings. He obviously had no idea what to make of what he saw, and Blaze was glad that she wasn't the only one totally weirded out by this.
"Awesome?!" Scott said, running and bounding merrily across the stacks of blocks.
"Weird? Sketchy? Unnatural?" Max offered, gazing at the abnormally coloured moon.
"Yeah, that." Adam responded dryly.
"Good ol' rapid transit Subspace." Ramona grinned. "My bad though. Probably should've given you a heads up. Some of these Subspace Highways can get mad trippy."
"I would certainly agree," Zan audibly muttered, eyeing a group of flying piggy banks as they went by. "First thugs that explode into money, then those peculiar messages coming from nowhere, and now this? How can something like this even exist? What logic is there behind this?" Even with a brain that could have easily surpassed Einstein's, no matter how hard Zan tried, he couldn't make a bit of sense of some of the things he was seeing. They weren't even making footprints in the sand as they walked!
"Dude, it's all perfectly normal!" Scott called down to Zan, shattering a piggy bank in midair with a punch. "Watch your head down there!"
Zan glanced up and sidestepped the glass shards and change that fell from where Scott had landed his attack. Scott dropped to the ground and hurried to where the fallen coins sat on the sand and scooped them up.
"Sorry, man! I need to get as much money as I can while we're here. Gotta help Kim afford a new drum set. We're kinda. . .broke."
Zan assisted Scott in picking up the $6.34 that landed on the sand in front of them. After collecting half of the money while Scott had the other half, Zan deposited the coins in his metal hand into Scott's natural, organic ones.
"Thanks," Scott quickly thanked the now pensive looking elderly cyborg before stuffing the change into a side jean pocket. He turned to look for more money, only to be stopped by a titanium hand resting itself on his shoulder.
"Scott," He started, with that echoed voice.
"Uh. . .yeah?" Scott answered, a pinch of discomfort at the abrupt gesture.
"With your consent, I'd like to examine one of the coins you've just acquired."
"Oh, uh, yeah, sure." Scott muttered, gently dropping a toonie in his metal palm as they continued to walk along the path. Zan took the coin in his sharp clawlike fingers, carefully inspecting it through narrowed eyes. It seemed normal enough, but he still had the suspicion that it, along with everything else in here, was what was giving off this strange energy. Though maybe it was just the place itself.
"Damnit," Skate spat, swinging his leg up for a midair kick at one of the flying piggy banks, missing by only centimeters. "Not enough air. Yo, Scott, how do I start flying in here? Some of these pigs are too high."
"It doesn't really work like that," Ramona called back, retaining her relaxed stride across the unnaturally flat sand. "You can only do that kind of stuff in Mind Subspace, not the regular kind. Mind Subspace is like this one, only it's in your own mind. You can access it through dreams."
"Huh. Sweet," Skate replied with a bit of a smile in his tone, having heard the entire breakdown, which he found pretty interesting, and cool. His tone dropped to a conflicted mutter as he eyed at the flying banks. "Guess for now I'll just have to get to high ground like Scott."
"Hey, Skate," Max called, eyeing a group of banks approaching. "Still need a boost?"
"Heh, thanks Max!" Skate thanked, turning around and tucking himself into a ball in front of Max, who scooped him up in his palms. It proved to be a rather easy task, due to both Max's inhuman strength, and Skate's compact size. ('Cause he's like, 14! Duh!)
"Goin, up!" He said, tossing Skate in an underhand way, his aim perfect. Skate, doing multiple frontflips still tucked up, soared above everyone and toward the line of four flying banks. Skate's bodily posture and aerial movement would have the same effect as a Dynamite Headbutt would, allowing him to plow seamlessly through the banks—which he did.
"Watch your heads!" Skate called, still doing cannonball flips through the air. Shards of pink glass and change rained down on the sand below. Those who'd been directly below Skate's general area, either stepped to the side or put their heads down to avoid being hit.
"Aw, man, that was awesome!" Skate laughed mirthfully, retrieving his $20.76 upon landing cleanly. "Subspace rocks."
Ramona smiled at his reaction to the place, only the slightest bit surprised that he seemed to warm up to Subspace faster than some of the other heroes. Curiously, she turned to Axel, who was walking a pace or two behind her. "You've been quiet, Axel. What's your verdict on this place?"
Axel, who had been treading across the sand with a content look on his face, responsively met Ramona's eyes. "Well, I'm a gamer, myself, so this is all actually pretty cool."
Max, knowing his best friend, shook his head with a smile. Figures, Axel.
"Then you probably know what the hell you're looking at." Blaze muttered, just loud enough for Axel to hear—and chuckle in response to. "I feel like I'm on acid right now."
"Glad you're warming up to Subspace." Ramona snarked good-naturedly.
"Dude! You play videogames?!" Scott asked, addressing Axel. He saw another flying piggy bank. "Check this out. I know you'll think this is awesome. Just watch." When it was just about to be right under him, Scott once again did a Shoryuken, getting the timing perfect, coming in contact with the bank and easily shattering it.
"Whoa!" Skate exclaimed, not expecting to see Scott do something literally out of one of his fighting games.
"Heh. The Shoryuken," Axel chuckled, surprised as well. "Nice, man, nice."
"Yeah, I know right?! Too bad I can only do Ryu's version of it, and not Ken's, like you, dude." Scott said, retrieving his $1.63, his words eliciting a laugh from Axel.
"So you saw that, huh?" He inquired, raising an eyebrow. "We'll, it's not exactly a Shoryuken. I call it the Grand Hook."
"Hold up," Blaze cut in, addressing Scott—she had to if he was implying what she thought he was—but she wasn't sure. "Are you saying that that uppercut you just did was from a videogame?"
"Yeah!" Scott nodded, confirming Blaze's suspicions. She'd thought she'd heard people associate those two names with uppercuts once on some game channel she'd seen a quick two seconds of while channel surfing one night.
"He does this all the time. He learns to fight by copying what he sees from videogames." Ramona informed, shaking her head. "Personally, I don't get it."
Adam curiously arched an eyebrow. "And how does that work out for you, Scott?"
"Well, I am the best fighter in the province!" Scott grinned proudly.
"You are?" Adam asked Scott, somewhat skeptically as he eyed his form up and down. He didn't look like he'd trained a day in his life—hell, just by looking at his chest area, he could tell that he did extremely little to no training.
"Uh, dude, are you trying to like, come onto me? Cause I'm totally taken." Scott asked uncomfortably, completely misinterpreting Adam's gaze.
"Wait, what? No!" Adam exclaimed, taken aback by Scott's accusation. "I was only looking at your chest area because it doesn't seem like you have any that many muscles, if. . .any, really. I was wondering how that could be possible if you're constantly training. Kinda weird for the best fighter of a province, don't you think?"
"Oh, I don't train like other people, I just keep playing fighting games!" Scott explained gleefully.
Adam blinked, now clearly skeptical that he was as good as he said he was if that's how he trained. "And. . .that helps you effectively hone your skills?"
"Yeah! You should try it! It requires absolutely ZERO effort, and makes you fight like a total boss!" Scott extolled.
Adam, though still a bit disbelieving, merely cracked a smile and shrugged. "Hey, whatever works, works, I guess."
"Almost thought you were into hipsters for a second there, bro." Skate cracked, referencing the earlier misunderstanding.
"Can we talk about something else now?" Scott asked uncomfortably, wanting to ditch the subject, yet secretly shivering in glee. Skate silently snickered at his words.
"Well, I still can't figure out why you guys can't open Subspace doors. . ." Ramona said thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "Our friends have been able to get into Subspace just fine on their own. . .Scott, when was the last time you used Subspace, before just now, I mean."
"Uhh. . . ." Scott mumbled, cluelessly, vainly trying to remember.
"Nevermind actually," Ramona said quickly, before lapsing back into thought.
"I have absolutely no idea how this place works, but. . .who knows, maybe us being here now will allow us to open the doors, like you said." Blaze shrugged slightly.
"Maybe. . ." Ramona half-unconsciously answered, still in a contemplative state.
"Where are we even going, Ramona?" Scott asked.
"Home, remember? Our new friends are staying with us until the hail stops."
"Thanks, Ramona." Blaze said gratefully, liking the idea of not having to withstand hail very much, and even happier that she and her friends were thought of as friends by Ramona. A smile started to make its way across her lips. "We appreciate it."
"Don't mention it," She dismissed kind-heartedly with a wave. "Ah, there's our door."
Jogging at an increased pace due to anxiousness of the soon-to be-had results, the group approached the aforementioned Subspace door that would bring them back to their yard.
"Time to see if this worked. Axel, you haven't tried yet. Can you see what you can do with this door?" Blaze said, nudging Axel slightly. He nodded, and reached out to grab the door. He wrapped his hands around the handle and twisted his wrist—only for the door to not budge a single inch.
Axel growled. "Damn door. Why won't it open?" He said, beginning to get pissed.
"Chill out, there, dude." Adam said, noticing the slight incline in his friend's voice. "We'll get this whole Subspace shit sorted out in time."
Axel nodded, forcing the Subspace mystery to the back of his mind for now, everyone else seeming to do the same. "Yeah. We should also explain what's happening to Toronto as soon as we get back to Scott's and Ramona's."
"I think the girls back at the house would like to know what's happening, also." Scott added before giving a drawn out moan in dreadful realization. "Oh man, I've also gotta give Kim the bad news. . .hope she's not too mad about those dudes destroying her drums. If she tries to kill me, save me, guys. I'm too young and cool to die."
Zan merely gave a silent chuckle at how seriously Scott seemed to take this, or rather his friend, Kim, apparently did.
"These young musicians nowadays truly are something else." He said, a touch of amusement in his voice.
"Dude, you seriously have NO idea." Ramona responded with a practically audible smirk.
Inside the couple's residence, Stacey and Kim were seated on the couch, safe, courtesy of Knives, who now donned her combat garb, consisting of a one-piece sleeveless bodysuit, near-shoulder length fingerless gloves, and a blue and yellow striped scarf. They were all sitting around chatting idly, able to now that Stacey was back to her normal self, when they heard the sound of the front door open. When they saw the foot of a person through the doorway, Knives immediately went on the offensive, drawing a distictive sai-like knife and hurling it with alarming force at where she assumed would be the person's head, lodging the knife in the door in the process. She instantly regretted it when she heard Scott yelp out in surprise.
"Dude! It's just me!" Scott yelled, glaring at Knives.
"Sorry!" Knives apologized briefly, yet sincerely, holding her hands to her face. "Totally thought it was some criminal!"
"It's cool," He said with a final sigh, going around to the other side of the door, prying out the knife that was embedded in it. The others filed in soon afterwards as Scott tossed the knife back to its owner, who caught it. "Thanks for coming over, though, Knives."
"Oh, it was no biggie," She said with a little wave, before remembering her earlier facade to Scott. "My, uh, training, had uh, ended a little early, so my dad let me come over. Good thing."
"Nice house, guys." Adam complimented, gazing around at the neat house.
"Thanks," Scott and Ramona replied simultaneously. The former noting that his sister looked unharmed, insinuating that nothing had gone down in their absence.
"So I guess you're the guys that saved the stadium or something?" Kim questioned disinterestedly.
"That's us." Blaze nodded. She was about to introduce her and her friends, but Ramona beat her to it.
"Kim, Stacey, Knives, this is Blaze, Axel, Adam, Skate, Max, and Dr. Zan." The courier said, pointing to each respective member of the team as she said their name.
"That's cool. I'm Stacey. Thanks for getting rid of those criminals. They were real dicks.
Stacey Pilgrim
Scott Pilgrim's younger sister
Rated T for teen
"Hey! I'm, uh, Knives Chau, I guess." Knives introduced awkwardly, yet energetically with a rapid wave.
Knives Chau
18 years old
Personality: Way too hyper
"Kim." The redhead simply stated in a tone that was in between a mumble and a grunt.
Kim Pine
Drummer
Likes: Nobody
"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Zan greeted mannerfully and inclusively, despite seeing Kim's info box. "However, at the moment, we have some rather unpleasant news."
"That's right, Zan." Blaze nodded. "A criminal organization called The Syndicate has moved its operations here in Toronto. It's the reason your stadium was attacked."
The girls on the couch (including Scott, and barring Kim), looked surprised at this. An organization being connected with the crimes was about the last thing they expected. They'd all just thought they were nothing more than random acts of violence and assholery, but they were mistaken, as there was nothing random about these crimes whatsoever. Ramona frowned, remembering when Blaze had mentioned the name earlier backstage.
"That's actually not that hard to believe." Ramona stated matter-of-factly.
"What? Don't tell me you knew that there would be a crime syndicate involved! I don't think any of us knew!" Stacey exclaimed.
"It crossed my mind, I mean." Ramona clarified, now looking at Stacey. "When these crimes first started, I just figured they were just ordinary assholes causing trouble. But when they continued, I kind of had a little suspicion that there might've been a gang or a crime ring involved. They weren't too uncommon back home, and I guess I was just reminded of my roots. I actually ended up shrugging it off for a while, but when Blaze mentioned it was true, I actually couldn't believe I was right."
The story made Adam curious. "Where'd you live?"
Despite legitimately seeing them as friends, Ramona didn't particularly want to disclose such information to them just yet. It wasn't anything personal, but merely her mysterious nature wanting to keep things under wraps until she knew them a bit better. She tended to get like that when she'd met someone new. "Around, I guess."
Catching how Ramona responded, Adam simply nodded and respectfully let the subject drop. "Ah,"
"So, uh. . .who leads it?" Knives referred to The Syndicate, suddenly feeling as though she'd been pulled into another world.
"A guy named Mr. X." Axel responded, his voice turning hateful. "He's a sick, power seeking bastard that doesn't know when to call it quits."
"So you've had to deal with him more than once. What, did he break out of jail?" Kim deadpanned. Axel scoffed.
"He owned the police, government, hell, he owned the whole city. Trying to have him arrested was pointless. Blaze, Adam and I had to take matters into our own hands and kill him ourselves."
"And he just keeps coming back to life?" Ramona asked, causing Axel to give a nod as a response.
"Yep. About every year or so after we take him down, he's back from the dead. Good as new."
"Whoa! He's like, immortal!" Scott said, wide-eyed.
"A seemingly supernatural case of Lazarus Syndrome would be more like it, "Zan responded, sharing Axel's frustration. Upon seeing the completely lost look on Scott's face, he decided to explain. "An extremely rare case where a dead body is able to resurrect itself."
"That can actually happen?" Stacey asked, visibly disturbed. "That's some unnatural stuff right there.
"Woah! It's like when I got that extra life!" Scott said, wide-eyed and amazed, much to the utter confusion of the six vigilantes standing in the room. Scott went to explain.
"I killed this one guy once, and he left behind an extra life, and I took it, and came back to life when I got stabbed! It was pretty rad!"
"Oh and don't worry about Scott's, uh, killing. The guy he killed totally deserved it, plus, he was a total dick." Ramona jumped in. "But that's another story for another time. Keep telling us about The Syndicate and Mr. X."
"Just. . .answer me one thing real quick. Will one of you tell me who the hell had the idea to let a kid on your team?" Kim cut in critically, unable to hold in the question any longer. She briefly eyed the team collectively, before resting her gaze on Skate. "Isn't it, like, past your bedtime?"
Offended, Skate glared intensely at the impassive redhead. "Hey! I might not be grown yet, but I ain't useless, red! And it was my idea to join the team when my bro was kidnapped!"
Kim seemed to soften at this. Not at Skate's tone, but rather at his words alone. "Your. . .brother was kidnapped?"
"Yeah. Year after we beat Mr. X the first time. Bastard got his right-hand man to snatch me up." That was Adam.
"Oh." Kim muttered, now looking at Adam, her tone now full of genuine empathy rather than her usual cynicism. "Well. . .I'm sorry."
"S'okay," Adam shrugged with an amiable smile. "I got out just fine thanks to these guys. And I even got to get my licks in on him later down the road. So it's all good."
Kim nodded wordlessly. Still, Adam had to wonder what caused the sudden change of attitude in this Kim Pine. He was almost certain that she'd experienced a similar situation before, but if Ramona was any indication, it would be best to just leave the subject be. So he did just that.
"So has he done anything else?" Scott inquired.
"Yeah," Max nodded. "Personally—and I think I speak for everyone on this team when I say this—I think his third one was way worse than the last two endeavors. Taking over the city—bad, kidnapping Adam—bad, but what he did the third time was on a whole new scale, man."
"What'd he do?" Scott hoarsely managed to get out, engrossed in the story."
"You wanna tell 'em, Blaze?" Max asked considerately. He may have been a contributing member of the team, but he felt as though this one was reserved for the leader.
"Sure," She replied, glancing back at Max. She turned back to facing Kim, Knives, and Stacey on the couch. Her tone becoming grave with her next words. "X tried to start a nuclear war."
This visibly shocked the Canadian residents in the room. Scott and Ramona spun to look at the vigilantes, taken aback, while Knives and Stacy also now donned incredibly surprised looks. Much like how she'd reacted at the news of Gideon's return, even Kim couldn't resist keeping a subdued surprised look off of her freckled features.
"He. . .was gonna start a nuclear war?" The redhead repeated in disbelief. While the feeling was mild, it still took a lot to surprise Kim, even in the slightest, of all people. Upon first hearing of Mr. X when Axel had first referenced him, Kim thought of him as no more than typical, run-of-the-mill, crime boss, but hearing about waging nuclear warfare changed that view instantly. That wasn't something that ordinary crime bosses just did.
Blaze nodded. "Yeah. And he would've won, too. Not only was he going to use robots in his army instead of human beings, but he had a hell of an ace up his sleeve that would've guaranteed total victory: Rakushin. An extremely powerful chemical that explodes when it rots. We found out that little tidbit the hard way when some exploded in our city. 30,000 killed, 60,000 wounded."
"Sweet Jesus. . ." Ramona audibly whispered.
"God." Stacey said, wincing in sheer sympathetic pain for the unfortunate victims of the explosion. Knives said nothing, but lowered her head wanly and shook it depressingly slowly. Kim stared ahead. Her expression unreadable.
"Wow. . .that's kind of. . .sad." Scott said sullenly, looking at his feet. He then looked up confusedly. "Wait. . .30,000 and 60,000 what?"
Ramona sighed, running a hand across her face. Kim however seethed at his cluelessness.
"People, you retard." She growled through gnashed teeth.
"Oh. . ." He mumbled, wheels in his head practically visible as it registered to him. "OH MY GOSH THAT'S HORRIBLE!" He yelled suddenly, and erratically, startling the ever-living hell out of Blaze.
"Yeah, radioactive stuff is no joke." She said, having recovered from the shock of Scott's outburst. With that, she continued. "Anyway, X managed to get his hands on some, and put large amounts of it in bombs, which he would have his goons scatter around the city and set to explode."
"But, how would detonating bombs in your own city with that Raku-whatever stuff help him jump start a war?" Knives asked, legitimately confused.
"Well, he wanted war to smuggle Rakushin, but our nation's military General was an obstacle to his ambitions. See, he wasn't corrupt, and was actually a good leader, trying to avoid getting into unnecessary disputes with the other Lima Nations. So X kidnapped him, and replaced him with an imposter, who he sent to announce to the public that we were going to take military action against the Nations X had gotten us in a dispute with. So we split up, Adam went to take down and expose the fake General, while the rest of us went to deal with X. Of course, we were all surprised when we saw that he was just a brain in a container." Blaze finished.
"Gross! Why would he want to turn himself into a brain?!" Stacey said, flinching at the thought.
Blaze chuckled. "He didn't have a choice! We messed him up so bad for kidnapping Adam, that he couldn't salvage his body when he came back to life."
"Well geez. Guess the third time around was an easy fight then, huh?" Ramona smirked cheekily.
"Oh, God no," Blaze chuckled, lowering her head and shaking it slightly. She found Ramona's question to be extremely ironic. "He was planning on using a giant mech that he called Neo X. Managed to control its every move with his mind alone. That's how he fought us, and it's how he would've ruled our city from a glass jar. Adam had finished up with the General right when we got finished with Neo X, and picked us up in a chopper. Good thing, too, because X rigged the base to explode." She turned to Adam with an ever grateful smile. "Thanks again for that, Adam."
"Hey, what kind of jerk let's his best friends and little brother get blown up?" Adam smiled back, placing a hand on Skate's shoulder.
"Heh, the true ones!" Skate said, looking up at his elder brother, who took off his hat just to ruffle his dark hair, putting it back on afterwards.
"Little brothers, right?" Stacey asked Adam with a chuckle.
"Yeah, you gotta love 'em, no matter how annoying they can get."
"Tch, believe me, I try, but it's hard." Stacey playfully returned.
"Heyy. . ." Scott whined.
"I was just joking, you idiot." Stacey snapped, though a smirk easily played across her lips. "You know I love you."
"But yeah," Axel said, picking up where Blaze left off. "After we managed to avert the war, X had the city corrupted again. He went back to bribing the city's major officials, police, and he even built a baseball stadium and funded a park to make himself look good to the public. He had everybody fooled with that crap, but a leopard can't change its spots, and we all knew it. So we hit the streets and did some digging, and managed to get our hands on some evidence of all the officials that he'd corrupted. After we killed him, that is. And the best part of it was that that evidence we found didn't just prove X and all those other people guilty, but it also proved us innocent." He finished.
Ramona folded her arms and nodded. "Impressive. You guys definitely know how to get shit done."
"Yeah! You're like. . .superheroes!" Scott praised. He then turned to the towering wrestler, Max. "Especially you, Max. Did you get, like, exposed to Gamma Radiation or something?"
Max laughed, flexing a huge arm. "Nah, man. I prefer pumping iron the old fashioned way."
With a roll of her eyes, Ramona smiled, and addressed Max. "Sorry. He's a total geek. He even made an X-Men patch for his jacket. The one he's wearing right now."
"H-hey!" Scott stuttered flusteredly. "You have no evidence of that, Ramona!"
Blaze shook her head, smiling. "So anyway, we received some info that X was located here not to long ago. Yesterday even. We flew out here because we—"
"You FLEW?! Like actual flying?! With wings?!" Scott blurted out.
"No. . .I meant on a plane. You know, Delta Airlines?" The brunette tried awkwardly. Scott simply stared ahead dumbly, obviously not following. Blaze decided to move on with her thought. "Anyway, we decided to fly out here because X wanted to take over an area where he thought nobody would stand in his way. And we especially came knowing what that excuse of a man is willing to do to get it."
"And do you know what's awesome about it all?" Scott said, grinning.
"Is it that we get to bust tons of heads in the process?" Max smirked. "'Cause if that's it, I'm with ya all the way, Scotty."
"Nooooo. . ." Scott drawled playfully as he waved a finger, the grin on his face heavily implying that he knew something the others didn't.
"Then again, no. What?" Blaze asked, clearly confused, and by the way everybody's—well, except Kim's—eyes were on him at that moment, she could tell that everyone else was too.
Standing proud with hands on hips, Scott ran to the center of the room and delivered his response.
"I, Scott Pilgrim, will be helping you, Blaze Fielding, and your friends destroy Mr. X for good!"
The aforementioned group of vigilantes were slightly stunned (if not slightly amused) not only by Scott's manner of speech, but were moreso surprised at what had just said. They all eyed him curiously, yet earnestly.
"You will?" Came Axel's inquisitive reply. "Don't get me wrong, we appreciate the help. You just don't seem like the vigilante type, is all."
"Well, I'm not, really," Scott admitted. "But it'll be awesome getting to beat up gang members all the time! Like in. . .the funnest videogame, like, ever! Only in real life!"
"The funnest videogame ever, huh?" Blaze chuckled, quoting Scott. The words were actually fairly intelligent-sounding on her lips. "Well, if you think you're up to it, welcome to the team, Scott."
"YES!" Scott shouted, tightly shutting his eyes and throwing both fists skyward in victory.
SCOTT PILGRIM HAS JOINED THE TEAM
"I've still yet to understand that." Zan mumbled somewhat pensively in response to the Info box blinking into existence.
"I've got yet to get used to that." Blaze snorted, half expecting it to appear. The suddenness of it didn't startle her anymore, but she still found the mere sight of them to be jarring.
"Wait." Ramona said suddenly and firmly, inviting the eyes of everyone in the room.
"What is it, Ramona?" Scott inquired, watching as his girlfriend took a seat on the loveseat beside him.
"Scott, you beat the Exes while I just hung back. For the most part. I know I helped with Gideon in the end, but I know I could've helped you in alot of the other the situations my past has put you in. And I feel partly responsible for every injury that you've sustained trying to fight them. Like I said yesterday, I'm finally stepping up and fighting by your side. Besides, we're a couple. I've realized that that means I've gotta always be by your side, that includes with this whole Syndicate deal." She said strongly, gripping Scott's hand before swiveling slightly to face Blaze with a serious expression. "Blaze, If Scott's gonna be helping you beat The Syndicate, then I want in, too."
Blaze, very much liking the loyalty Ramona showed toward Scott by asking to join, simply nodded. "Then consider yourself in."
RAMONA FLOWERS HAS JOINED THE TEAM
When Ramona saw the Info box appear just as Scott's did, she felt good inside. She knew she would finally be taking a step toward being a better girlfriend. Scott would do anything for her, even fight her seven superhumanly superpowered Evil Exes, and fighting The Syndicate with him would be a good way to prove she felt the same way. To him and herself. She looked to Scott for his reaction, which was no less than to envelop her in a tight, warm, and loving hug.
Suddenly, Ramona let out a noise and unconsciously pushed Scott away, feeling an an odd sensation. She gazed down at her chest and saw a thinly swirling golden vortex of sorts. A brown handle of what could be assumed to be a sword peeked through. Scott, knew exactly what was happening and nodded to Ramona, who understood the message and nodded in response.
"Whoa! What the hell's happening to her?!" Skate bellowed. His eyes were wide with alarm, as were his teammates', who could only watch the bizarre scene unfold before their very eyes.
"It's alright." Scott said calmly, holding out a palm to reassure them. "This is good. Awesome, even. She needs to do this."
Ramona grasped the handle and pulled, the weapon painlessly slipping from the vortex swirling in the area right over her heart. Pulling the instrument completely out of her chest, she could see that it was in fact, a sword. A pristine sword with a perfectly straight blade crafted from pure platinum, she could tell. It was ninjato-like in its appearance, much unlike The Power of Love, a more katana-like sword. She held it up in a grand fashion, letting the platinum blade gleam in the light.
Ramona has earned The Power of Loyalty!
Heart +5
Will +4
Skill +5.5
"Anybody wanna explain what just happened? I mean, I think I know, but. . ." Adam trailed off, having lost his voice.
"By showing and proving my loyalty to Scott, I can now use this new sword, The Power of Loyalty." Ramona explained, turning the blade over, continuing to let the light dance across it. "Heh. The end of the handle even has a star on it. Matches my ring."
"The same thing happened to me when I told Ramona I loved her! Only mine was The Power of Love. Scott said, before hanging his head and beginning to complain to Ramona. "Aww, you've got two swords now, and I only got one! Bull!"
"So. . .you're telling me that this happens on a regular?" Blaze questioned, her and her friends (barring Zan, of course) starting to get some understanding of what just happened.
"You know, just what is it with you people and producing weapons from your bodies?" Kim asked with narrowed eyes, indirectly answering Blaze's question to some degree.
"I can't help but to agree with Kim," Zan said, his elderly features slightly scrunched in sheer thought for what felt like the millionth time today. "Pulling a sword out of your chest clearly should have been fatal. . .and you two say that you are able to perform such physical feats from your emotions alone?"
Scott and Ramona shared a look.
"Uh. . .yeah." Ramona and Scott replied in unison.
"I find that especially. . .intriguing." The doctor said thoughtfully. "In my years, others have told me that strength can draw from emotions, and I know this to be nothing short of the truth. However, never had I expected it to be done in a manner that you two present."
"Hold up, hold up. . .if that's how those swords work, then how come I didn't get The Power of Love when me and Scott were dating?" Knives frowned, turning her body slightly to face Ramona, as if she held the answer. Ramona didn't really know herself, the only explanation she could have come up with being that the feelings had to be reciprocal, which in their case, were not. She found herself wanting to speak her mind to Knives. She couldn't explain it, but she wasn't about to stop herself, either.
"Well, Knives—"
"Hey-hey!" Scott laughingly interrupted in a way that would arouse suspicion, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend. Isn't this awesome?! Rammy got a new sword! Cause she promised to never leave my side, and stuff! Heh, right?" He finished softly.
Ramona cast a knowing glance at Scott. She could tell he had the same theory on the workings on how one could pull weapons from within their own being. And she theorized that it was because he wanted to leave the past in the past, if only to keep Knives from getting upset. Ultimately however, she decided to just leave it, at least for now.
"Look, this is all swell and good, and I am happy for you Ramona, but you know Gideon's back," Stacey began to chide, showing concern, albeit, in a somewhat blunt way. "How are you guys going to juggle fighting The Exes and The Syndicate? Even with that new weird sword, I think you've put too much on your plates."
"The what?" Blaze raised an eyebrow, her tone a blend of confusion and interest.
"The League of Evil Exes." Ramona clarified. "A group of seven of my exes joined together and were bent on keeping me and Scott apart. Scott managed to defeat them, and we thought we were rid of them, but I had a run-in with their leader, Gideon, yesterday, who told me they'd reformed."
"Wait. . .you dated seven villains?" Skate asked, raising both his eyebrows in sheer perplexity. "Huh?"
"They weren't evil until Gideon formed The League of Evil Ex Boyfriends. They were pretty tough, and one of them was even a g-g-girl," Scott stuttered, visibly shivering with glee, to the confusion of the six vigilantes. "but I still beat them all for Ramona like a total boss!"
Ramona glared at Scott, miffed at his tactless mention of her bi-curious phase, but nonetheless reminded him of what else Gideon had told her. "But they're driven by revenge this time, Scott. They'll stop at nothing to kill you. And they've learned from their mistakes—meaning we'll have to be more careful and probably come at them differently."
After a tiny silence, the courier then faced Wood Oak City's heroes with mild apprehension. She had never even heard of Lima, much less did she know how its residents viewed homosexuality. "And yeah, I, uh, hope you guys don't, like, hate me for going out with another. . .yeah."
"'Course not." Axel assured with a relaxed shrug. "Straight, gay, bi—doesn't matter."
"Yeah. Long as you're not on X's payroll, you're cool with me." Max joined with a smile.
"Heh, good to know," Ramona responded saucily, yet the smile on her face that accompanied it added its own silent 'thank you' that was appreciated by Axel and Max. She then gave a small wave of dismissal. "And it was just a stupid phase, anyway, so. . .y'know."
"Need a hand dealing with these guys?" Blaze offered. "I mean, if you say they're gonna be tougher to handle this time, I would assume it wouldn't hurt to have some extra help."
"That. . .would actually be awesome. Thank you, Blaze." Ramona said with a grateful smile.
BLAZE AND HER FRIENDS ARE HELPING SCOTT AND RAMONA DEFEAT THE (totally douchebaggy) LEAGUE OF EVIL EXES
"Blaze, are you sure that this is a wise decision? I see it as a necessity that we all be at our zenith when the inevitable confrontation with Mr. X arrives. Don't you think taking on another task would deprive us of that?" Zan cautioned, not entirely realizing that his voice had hardened substantially, reaching the grittiness capable of hinting of a personal vendetta. Zan knew full well that X's hand-to-hand abilities were extraordinary—almost to the point of being frightening, from close-up personal experience. And with above-average physical strength, and that gun of his, he was more than a force to be reckoned with. Zan wasn't trying to come across as uncaring to Scott and Ramona's predicament, he was merely trying to ensure that he and the team would be able to put X back where he belonged: Hell.
"I'm sure it's the right thing, Zan." She nodded confidently. "We may have to do more going around, but we'll still be able to rest. If we have to, we'll even take a short break mid-task to head back to the hotel to sleep, and pick it back up first thing in the morning. But we're helping Scott and Ramona. It's the least we can do since they're helping us. And don't worry, we'll be ready for X."
Zan gave a slight nod. A small part of him was still doubting her, but Blaze hadn't ever steered them wrong in the past. Even before she was the leader of the group, Blaze was never without abandon in how she handled herself. For the time being, he decided not to voice his concern any further.
"So how about now, big sis? Wait, hold on. . .ummm. . .aha! So how about now, LITTLE sis?" He corrected, pointing at her triumphantly. Stacey rolled her eyes. "Blaze and her friends are helping us! That makes like, ten of us now!"
"No, it doesn't, little brother." Stacey said smoothly.
"Does too! L-look! Me and Rammy make two, and. . ." Scott trailed off, attempting to count on his fingers in attempt to prove his point, to absolutely no avail. Adam barely suppressed a laugh.
"I still think you're spreading yourselves too thin, even if there's six vigilantes helping you two." Stacey said, facing Ramona with a slight purse of the lips. Everyone knew it was entirely out of concern for the couple, but still, Ramona was curious.
"And how many more people do we need to gain your consent?" Ramona replied half-jokingly, crossing her arms.
"I dunno. . .like, maybe, one more, I guess?" Stacey answered rather uncertainly with a shrug.
"What do you think?" Scott asked Ramona. "Do you think we should see if we should get another person to fight with us?"
Ramona's mind flashed back to the encounter with Gideon.
We've learned from our failures, and with revenge fueling us, we can't lose.
She frowned, heeding his warning. "Stacey may have a point. You know how the Exes are." She was glad to see that Scott was willing to include her in a big decision such as this instead of just making a hasty choice like he sometimes tended towards. She was in the midst of turning her gaze toward Knives when Stacey briefly interjected her thought process.
"Told you!" She chirped.
"But who do we know that can fight that hasn't tried to kill me?" Scott replied, ignoring his sister's comment. Completely unsure as to where to begin looking, Scott tightly shut his eyes and tried to concentrate. Knives felt invisible all of a sudden. After all, she hadn't ever tried to kill Scott, (nor would she ever), she could fight, couldn't she? Even if Ramona had beaten her. . .twice. . .that wasn't saying that she herself was a crappy fighter. It just said that Ramona was a better fighter. Whether she was fighting with or without her namesakes, Knives could do some serious damage. And besides, she liked to think that her sneak attack on a certain ex of Scott's was pretty cool. . .even if she did end up unintentionally flinging herself into the wall in the process.
The petite Asian looked at Scott and figured he was just being. . .Scott in forgetting about her awesome abilities. He was often like that. So to help him out, Knives let out an obvious sigh from where she sat on the couch in a completely failed attempt to get Scott's attention. Knives let out another sigh, deliberately louder and longer this time, propping her face up on her fists. Still nothing. Knives let out a huff of frustration that Scott also failed to acknowledge before sighing a third time, this one the loudest and by far the most obvious of them all, to the point where she was nearly straining her vocal chords.
"Bored, Knives?" Skate cracked, grinning.
Despite her current frustration, Knives found it impossible not to manage a tiny laugh and a smile at the boy's wisecrack.
"She must be," Scott said, still in the midst of trying to think of someone else to help them. "She keeps on sighing! It's kinda makes it hard to think, really. . ."
"Maybe she's trying to send your dumb ass a message," Kim monotoned.
"Huh? You mean like a text message?" Scott muttered, scratching his head. "I don't get it. . ."
Knives finally facepalmed, everyone else in the room not far from doing the same.
"Idiot!" Kim shouted, harshly addressing Scott. "She wants to help you and Ramona!"
Scott blinked. "You do, Knives?"
"Yesss!" Came Knives remark, before she clasped her small hands together in a pleading gesture. "Can I?"
"Uh, sure. . .if you want." Scott answered unsteadily.
"YES! Attack Hug!" She cried happily, wrapping him in a crushing hug.
"Urg! C-an't breathe, K-knives!" A red-faced Scott choked out, weakly reaching for Ramona with one hand. The aforementioned girl did nothing to help, having an unreadable expression on her face. Knives finally released him.
"But, uh, Knives, not that I don't appreciate it, but why do you wanna help us?" Scott wondered, furrowing in confusion.
"Don't you get it, you goof?" Knives giggled. "We may not be together anymore, but I still love you. And. . .you do anything for the people you love."
Yeah. Anything but supporting them by going to their crappy concerts. Ramona thought sardonically while resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Such a gesture, while somewhat subtle, had a risk of drawing attention. Ramona's head started to glow dully before the faint aura subsided instantaneously after. It was so dull that nobody in the room seemed to notice, though at the same time, Zan's sensors were triggered briefly. The elderly cyborg blinked in confusion. Never before had his sensors gone off for just a brief second. His eyes searched the room for anything that could've caused it, yet he managed to find nothing. He decided to dismiss the incident for now.
"Wait! If Scott's helping you guys get rid of The Syndicate, then can I help too. . .for love?" Knives asked Blaze pleadingly, as she'd done to Scott. "I'll be sooo good! I promise!"
"Of course," Blaze replied with a tiny smile, which was quickly replaced with a serious look. "Strength in numbers, you know." In response to this, Knives whooped, jumping for joy, stopping just short of the surface of the ceiling. She got a closeup view of the Info boxes as they appeared in midair, slightly lower than the peak of her jump.
KNIVES CHAU HAS JOINED THE TEAM
KNIVES CHAU WILL ALSO BE HELPING SCOTT AND RAMONA DEFEAT THE LEAGUE OF EVIL EXES
Knives flopped back on the couch, making Stacey jump in surprise. Kim glanced at the girl indifferently.
"Whatever," The redhead mumbled.
"And this way, we'll totally get to hang out more, Scott!" A still beaming Knives squealed, turning slightly to face Scott, who nodded slowly, with a spaced-out look written across his features.
"The height on that jump was pretty sick there," Skate praised, totally taken by surprise by the superhuman height of Knives' aforementioned jump, along with the rest of the five vigilantes. Skate eyed her ensemble curiously. "Ninja much?"
Knives' cheeks tinged with pink as she giggled at his compliment. "Well, not really. I just jump really high. And that jump was nothing, really. I've jumped onto rooftops and across sections of this one ridiculously huge library."
"It was really huge. Stupidly huge." Stacey added.
Adam whistled. "Jumping up on rooftops? He scoffed, but there were no traces of disbelief in it. "Some serious agility. And you say you're not some sort of ninja? What's your style, then?" Upon hearing Adam's question, Axel paid close attention, as not to miss her answer.
Knives looked up thoughtfully, partly unsure of how to respond. "Well. . .it doesn't really have a name, I guess. But it's so a kind of style that uses weapons and hand-to-hand fighting, you know, like Kung-Fu or Hapkido. Axel nodded with interest. Being a 'Martial Arts' master and dojo instructor, he found himself fascinated by the description of Knives' unnamed fighting style.
"Well, I wouldn't doubt that you're a solid fighter, then. Especially how you threw that knife. Saw it when it got stuck in the door. It was pretty much lined right up with Scott's head." Axel commented. Knives laughed, though it was full of embarrassment.
"Yeah, it almost went through the door everything, remember?!" Scott entered the conversation excitedly. "Heh. Thank God we got that reinforced one installed!"
"You seem awfully cheerful about the fact that you were almost impaled through the skull by a flying knife." Kim smirked slightly.
"I was talking about how hard Knives had to have thrown that knife for it to go into a reinforced door, Kim!" Scott laughed, as if he'd said the most obvious thing in the world. Knives smiled. Kim rolled her eyes emotionlessly.
"Scott, Scott, Scott. First you date a Catholic 17-year old schoolgirl, then gotta fight the Exes—again, and now you're involved in vigilante business! Wait until Mom and Dad hear this!" Stacey devilishly sneered, flashing Scott a perfect view of her phone. Her words brought a dreadful feeling over Knives, who now had wide eyes.
"OHMYGOD! I SO totally forgot! My dad! He's gonna freaking kill me if he finds out I'm involved in this vigilante stuff! That I'm actually fighting The Syndicate! Oh God. . ." She ranted apprehensively, biting the nail on her thumb. Scott noticeably flinched and tensed at the mention of Knives' father.
"Lemme guess, he's the type of man who thinks this stuff should be left to the boys in blue." Adam intoned.
"Well. . .I don't think he has an opinion on that, really. I just know that this is something he'll freak out about. I mean, he tried to murder Scott just for being white when he found out we dated! I just know he's gonna flip out if he finds out me being a part of any of this!" Knives explained, full of emotion.
"So I guess that means you aren't going to be able to help us out, then, huh?" Blaze said evenly.
"No way!" She answered, her face lighting up all of a sudden. "I'm still gonna help you guys! I'll just have to keep this a secret from my dad. . .somehow. Maybe tell him I'm over a friends' or working late or something." Blaze permitted a tiny smile to cross her features.
Scott spoke up next, addressing Wood Oak City's heroes. "If you guys see a scary looking dude wearing shades with this cape thingy flowing behind him dressed in all black, don't make eye contact. Just don't. He's creepy. And scary."
"I'll. . .keep that in mind," Blaze said obligingly, highly doubtful that she would find Knives' father to be scary, for obvious reasons, despite being somewhat surprised by Scott's description of the man. "But you're saying he really had it out for you just because you and Knives dated?"
Scott nodded vigorously. "He chopped a BUS in half with a samurai sword just to reach me!"
"It was a streetcar, Scott." Kim mumbled with some annoyance. No one else noticed, but Skate went mute upon hearing the news, where he normally would've fired off an exclamation followed by a wisecrack, but he'd never heard of anything like this, and as a result was now shocked silent. He inwardly prayed that his future girlfriend wouldn't have a father (or mother, for that matter), that had a similar mindset when it came to dating.
"Tch," Axel lightly scoffed, frowning in surprise. He'd heard of overprotective dads wanting the best for their daughters, but Knives' father had went too far on that one. "That's way too extreme. Especially considering you weren't even together at the time."
"Yeah, I know. My dad's just lame like that." Knives sighed, rolling her eyes.
"So who are the members of this League of Evil Exes?" Blaze asked, changing the subject. "I'm actually really curious."
Ramona exhaled. "Well, if we're going in order, my first Evil Ex is this dude named Matthew Patel. He's got mystical powers that let him fly, shoot fireballs, and summon these Demon Hipster Chicks." Ramona shot Scott a short but sharp look that clearly stated that she would rather not have the actual relationship details shared with Blaze and her friends yet. Scott faltered slightly, signifying that he'd actually gotten this one.
"Demon Hipster Chicks. . ." Blaze repeated slowly, letting that settle down in her mind. "Well that's definitely. . .new."
"Same." Adam added, absently running his fingers through his dark hair. "We've taken down robots, mutants, and ninjas before, but never really demons."
"I guess a substantial fight is pretty much guaranteed, huh, guys?" Max inquired with a grin, now more than anxious to do battle with actual demons.
"Well, last time I beat him and his Demon Hipster Chicks just by dancing. I mean it started out like a normal fight, right? But then he started this rhyming, and then me, Kim, Knives, Stacey and a bunch of our other friends started doing these sick dance moves that ended up stunning Matthew and his Demon Hipster Chicks, and letting me punch him so hard, he died!" Scott explained excitedly.
"I remember that!" Knives laughed mirthfully. "That was so much fun!"
"That was weird." Stacey put in.
"Check it out, we were all like—" Scott said before cutting himself off to repeat the dance moves he and his friends had used during the fight.
"We won't have to be doing that will we?" Axel said, gently wincing, not at the dance moves themselves, but at the thought of having to dance period. This earned him laughs from everyone in the room, barring Zan and Kim, the both of them keeping a straight gaze ahead.
Ramona flashed him a pearly white grin, wanting to have a bit of fun with him. "What, Axel? Embarrassed? You'd be a great dancer!"
Skate moved to give him a playful elbow to the arm, grinning from ear to ear as well. "Yeah, man! I know Blaze has been looking for a partner for her Lambada stuff! Use this opportunity to get some rhythm!"
Axel gave a single, empty chuckle, then began to focus his attention on random items in the room, the sudden discomfort preventing him from saying anything.
"Anyway," Ramona said, returning to the subject, getting the last of her remaining chuckles out. "The second Ex of mine was this guy named Lucas Lee. You guys may know about him. He's like this big, famous movie star."
"Nope. Never heard of him." Adam remarked. "What movies did he do?"
"Honestly, I don't even remember. There was this one movie that he was in, Let's Hope There's a Heaven. It was kinda good, I guess." She shrugged lazily. "He was supposed to be in this one movie called You Just Don't Exist with this other actress, Winifred Hailey."
"He's super tough and cool. . .and hot." Scott said, adding the last part silently. Kim rolled her eyes. Ramona just smiled at him.
"Dude, you are soooo gay." Ramona laughed.
"W-wha? I-I am NOT!" Scott stuttered, becoming flustered and red-faced. "But anyway, I went to fight him, but while I was asking him for his autograph, he totally knocked me out with one punch! He's got, like, super strength, man!"
"I doubt it," Adam theorized. "You were busy trying to get his autograph, right? You probably just weren't prepared to take the punch. Knockouts can happen easily that way."
"No, he's actually right, for once," Kim chimed in, hardly believing her own words. "Lee actually tossed him into Casa Loma's tower. Thing's like a billion feet tall." (Fun Fact: This is an obvious embellishment.)
"Embellishment or not, if he does have super strength, we all need to be on the up-and-up around this guy. We're tough, but we don't have the superhuman amount of durability that Scott clearly has. He could end up killing us if we aren't careful." Blaze said sternly, the words directed at her five longtime friends.
"Ha! I'd like to see him try!" Max boasted lightly. "I bet he'd go down in three Atomic Drops, four, tops."
"Ever think of saving some for the rest of us, Max?" Adam teased lightly. "I'm pretty sure Scott might want to get his licks in on this guy."
"He didn't even have to touch him last time," Ramona grinningly informed, earning questioning looks from the six. She urged Scott. "Tell 'em."
"All I had to do was trick him into doing a fatal grind down a rail! He went so fast, he literally exploded!" He let out a tiny laugh. "Skateboarders will do anything for their reputation."
"So he's a skateboarder, huh?" Skate uttered with pseudo-seriousness. "Heh. Now I really wanna take this guy on."
Ramona smirked at the teen wryly. "Wonder why that is."
Skate laughed, a grin spreading across his boyish face as he pointed at her with the 'gun sign'. "Yep!"
"Wait. . .what? Why?" Scott said, the joke completely lost on him. His question went unheard, however.
"Number three's gonna be tougher on us all of us, though." Ramona spoke in a slightly lower voice. Blaze didn't fail to notice it, and decided to question her on it.
"Why?"
"He's a vegan."
Blaze slowly raised an eyebrow at this. "And. . .I'm guessing that means something other than the fact that he doesn't eat meat?" The words were laced with genuine curiosity rather than ill-manneredness.
"You mean you don't know what being a vegan means, or whatever?" Kim asked with a frown, suddenly feeling especially bitter, moreso than usual. It was like she was outright directly mocking Blaze for her ignorance of all of the benefits of veganism. The whole room suddenly got tense, as Blaze picked up on this, along with everyone else. Blaze frowned, fixing her gaze on Kim.
"That's exactly what I mean. If you mean to tell me that you know about it, then maybe you can enlighten me." She said, calm and professional-like. Not the slightest trace of anger in her voice.
". . .Actually, let me," Ramona cut in, the tension dispersing as quickly as it had settled with her words. Which worked out just fine, because Kim (who wasn't going to answer due to anger) had set her jaw, and glared daggers at Blaze, who didn't even notice because her focus was on Ramona. "Vegans can get psychic superpowers if they religiously stick to their diet, just like my third Ex, Todd Ingram."
"Prick," Skate scoffed.
"You don't even know him," Adam remarked, half jokingly, a noticeable tinge of amusement in his tone.
"I know what he's like. He's the bassist for this one band, The Clash at Demonhead." Skate explained, surprising Adam.
"He's famous, too?" The elder Hunter sibling asked, before facing Ramona. She nodded.
"Always hated their music, and always knew there was something I didn't like about Ingram. Hell, the whole group seemed off." Skate finished. Ramona chuckled briefly. Knives looked slightly downcast, having been a fan of theirs when they were still around. Still, she knew why he talked about them like he did.
"I just want everyone here to know that I agree with Skate! Todd is a COCKY. COCK. And a total douchebag! A totally overpowered douchebag! Oh, and I dated Envy in college." He added casually, directing it mainly at Skate, since he knew them.
"What?! You actually went out with Envy?!" Skate asked, shocked.
"Again, that's another story for another time," Ramona said, not wanting to discuss Envy. She turned to Blaze. "Todd's gonna be unstoppable unless his vegan powers are taken away, that is. Then he's a total joke. I don't think he ever took up martial arts."
"Do they even teach martial arts at the Vegan Academy?" Knives pointed out.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Max said in disbelief, running a gigantic hand across his face. "They have schools just for this?"
"It never made sense to me, either," Stacey chimed in. "If you want to be vegan, just don't eat meat. Simple."
While Blaze agreed with the absurdity of having an entire learning institution exclusively for learning to become a vegan, she steered the conversation back to Todd directly. "So how do we get those powers out of him?"
"We can't. The only thing that can take away his powers are the vegan police. Todd cheated on his diet prior to his fight with Scott, so they zapped him. Cheating on your diet as a vegan is the only way they'll show up, too. Scott was able to finish him off after he was deveganized, but still. . ." She trailed off.
"It was mostly luck, though, that fight." Blaze finished. Ramona nodded.
Blaze hmmed, placing her hands on her hips. An enemy who had telekinetic powers was not only something completely new to her and her team, but it appeared as though they could do nothing to reduce his power. This would be a problem. From where she sat on the couch, Kim smiled rancorously to herself as she looked at Blaze, as if she could read her thoughts. She was gleaning pleasure from seeing Blaze struggle, but Blaze was so deep in contemplation that she didn't even notice Kim's stare. Ramona could practically see the gears turning in the brunette leader's head, and spoke up.
"Don't sweat it, Blaze. Todd's my third Ex, so we won't be dealing with him until the first two are taken care of. We have time."
"What's to say they're not doing things differently this time? You said they'd stop at nothing to keep you two apart, they just may decide to get sneaky on us and switch up." Blaze pointed out, serious.
"They're not changing up." Ramona said assuredly. "It's like some unwritten rule among them. They'd always face Scott in the order that I dated them—starting with Matthew, and ending with Gideon."
After hearing Ramona's explanation, Blaze relaxed a bit, putting the thought of exactly how to beat Todd to bed for the time being. ". . .Alright."
"WAIT!" Scott suddenly said, his right hand shooting skyward, as if he were still in school. He lowered it awkwardly. "I have an important point to make!" A small silence followed. Scott wordlessly shifted his gaze from Blaze and her five friends, to Ramona, to Kim, Knives, and Stacey, before looking back at the six vigilantes. For God knows what reason, he simply stared ahead into space afterwards, still not talking. Everyone stared back at Scott. The chirp of a single cricket could be faintly heard outside the window.
"Well?" Axel said, the suddenness of his voice effectively shattering the silence. "Let's hear it."
"Um. . .okay. . .wait, what did you want to hear? Me play bass?" Scott asked innocently. Axel let out a heavy sigh of exasperation.
"You said you had a point to bring up and never said it, baby brother." Stacey said somewhat irritably, hoping to jog his memory so he would be able to (hopefully) help Ramona and himself.
"Baby?!" Scott exclaimed, offended.
"Never mind that!" Ramona cut him off, seizing him tightly by the shoulder. "What did you have to say? If it's about what we're talking about, we need to hear it. If it's about something random and stupid. . .just. . .save it for later, if anything."
"Oh! I remember now! You just said that Todd lost his vegan powers right before I killed him, remember?" How would being resurrected give him all of his powers back? Wouldn't he have to eat nothing but vegetables again, or go back to vegan academy or something?"
"That's an excellent point, Scott." Zan agreed. "If he's just been resurrected, and attending a certain school is required to obtain these alleged 'vegan powers', then our encounter with this boy will be far less daunting than we had anticipated." Ramona wanted to agree with Scott and Zan, but just couldn't.
"No," She said, shaking her head. Resentment for Gideon began to creep into her voice. "No, you don't know him like I do. I can almost guarantee that it won't be that easy. . ."
"Huh?" A bewildered Scott mumbled, scratching his head. "I'm confused. . ."
"Scott, Gideon is capable of alot of things. You know this, you've seen it. I. . .I just know that somehow, he was able to get Todd's powers back to him."
"You really think so?" Scott asked quietly, not breaking eye contact.
"I'm not about to put it past him," Ramona said in even tones, staring at him intensely.
"We'll figure something out just in case, then," Blaze cut in with an air of kind finality, somewhat understanding how Ramona felt. "Better safe than sorry. Especially when it comes to crazy shit like this. In the meantime, how about you just continue telling us about the Exes? Who did you date next?"
Ramona nodded shortly. "My fourth Ex was who we call Roxy Richter." Scott quietly shuddered pleasantly. Ramona rolled her eyes and continued speaking. "She's a half-ninja."
"That's it? Just a half ninja? Skate asked. "Tch. She'll be taken down with no problems, then!"
"We've handled clans of ninjas—full ninjas, in the past. If this girl hasn't even gotten through her ninja training yet, then I'm with my bro on this one." Adam agreed.
"She's way more dangerous than she sounds," Ramona remarked with severity. "She's a total hothead, and trust me, you don't want to get her fired up during a fight."
"She thinks she's the only one that can rage?" Axel scoffed. "Just wait till she meets me."
"That's not even all, guys," Scott said, eyes going wide. "She can go inside people's dreams! She tried to kill me in my sleep!" Ramona nodded to confirm this. The six vigilantes treated them both to looks of disbelief.
"The hell? Who does she think she is? Freddy?" The teen remarked.
"Damn." Blaze uttered. If she hadn't been expecting Ramona's exes to do something, or anyone else for that matter, THAT was it.
"They won't kill me. Maybe they'll fight me, but I know they'll keep me alive. I mean, it's why they exist, but, Scott. . ." Ramona trailed off.
Blaze nodded. "He's a different story. And they say that if you die in a dream. . ."
"You die for real, yeah." Ramona finished.
"That's, like, exactly what she said when she chased me through that forest!" Scott replied, a little freaked out by this detail. Blaze couldn't picture a forest in Toronto, so she just assumed that said forest was merely the setting that his subconscious had created for the dream. Scott thought back to his encounters with the blonde half-ninja. "She really hated me, too. Like, hated my guts. More than even Gideon or the twins, I think."
"Twins?" Axel repeated.
"Yeah, I dated twins." Ramona nodded. "Kyle and Ken Katayanagi."
"Yeah. . .wait, wasn't his name, like, Kevin, or something?" Scott said, looking to Ramona, who shook her head.
"You dated the Katayanagi twins?" Zan remarked, sounding genuinely surprised.
"You know them, Zan?" Blaze asked, turning to face Zan.
"I have heard of their exploits. They are award-winning roboticists." Zan nodded before taking on a thoughtful expression. "Though they were always said to be honorable. I never would have expected them to become evil." Ramona simply stared ahead, somewhat stony-faced, knowing herself to be the cause of this, yet instantly damning all ideas of taking it easy on them because of it to Hell. They were after her Scott, and she'd fight to the death for him. And in a way, it wasn't her fault. Yeah, she'd broken alot of hearts in the past, but it was because she'd conquered her fear of 'getting stuck' in relationships. And, as it would always turn out, she just. . .hadn't. But Scott was going to help her with that, and she felt confident that together, they'd be able to do it together.
"Do you know what their abilities in terms of combat are, Zan?" Blaze asked.
"That, I do not." Came his reply.
"They don't really have any powers or anything when they're fighting separately, but they have this weird thing that when they join hands," Scott began to supply, taking Ramona's hand in his for emphasis. "and decide to fight side by side, they get, like, superhuman strength and new moves!"
"It's called a Twin-Link, Scott," Ramona reminded him.
"It's safe to say that in a fight of nine to two, the odds are in our favor," Blaze said with a slight smile. "So as long as we can keep them apart during the fight, we should be fine."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Ramona responded.
"Wait, why are they even fought at the same time? I know they're twins and all that, but I thought you said they came in the order you dated them." Adam inquired.
"I kinda. . .dated them both at the same time. I cheated on one with the other." Ramona confessed, expecting some sort of question such as 'You'd cheat on your boyfriend with his own brother?', but was pleasantly surprised when none came. From Adam, who just nodded understandingly, or from any of the other members of the team. Perhaps they sensed her discomfort and guilt at the matter and chose not to bring it up. Either way, though, she was happy.
"That leaves only one more left to discuss, then." Blaze started with a nod towards the couple. "Exactly who is this Gideon?"
Ramona's head faintly glowed as her features took on a somewhat dark look. She really didn't feel like talking about Gideon in-depth, but doing so would aide them in their task, so she decided to do so anyway. "Well, like I said, he heads up the Evil Exes, and he's the guy I dated last before Scott. As for what he can do, he has this thing he invented called The Glow, which traps a person inside their own head."
"Mind Subspace?" Axel asked, wanting clarification.
"Yeah," Ramona confirmed. "Inside their own head, with all of their inner demons."
"What if you don't really have any of those, though?" Skate pointed out.
"I believe that everybody does, Skate." The courier responded somewhat eerily, her eyes boring into his. Skate kept quiet and dropped the subject, even though he did still think otherwise.
"How is it even used? This Glow thing?" Max inquired with a slight frown.
"He shoots it out of his hands in this, sort of, wide beam. . .thingy, and anyone that it hits gets infected with it." Scott answered.
"So you're saying that if a person gets infected, they'll be trapped in Subspace with no way out?" Blaze somewhat warily asked.
"Not exactly," Ramona said, smiling slightly. "You'll be trapped in your head, but you'll also still be present on this dimensional plane. It's sorta like you'll be in two places at once. And you'll know when you have it, because your head will glow. It lies dormant inside you until you experience strong negative emotions, at which point you become aggressive and confrontational. And it's untreatable. If you get infected, there's no cure."
"Wow. . ." Blaze said matter-of-factly before pointing something out. "I guess that explains your head glowing when I mentioned, Gideon just now, huh?"
Ramona nodded. "Yeah. My head tends to glow whenever I think to hard about that guy. Scott got infected too."
"He also messed with my memories!" Scott informed hotly.
"He's also capable of altering memories?" Zan repeated. "How is he able to do this? I imagine Subspace has little to do with one's actual memories."
"Uhh. . .we don't really know. But one time he made me think that Kim got captured by this one kid, Simon Lee when I was in high school, and that I had to beat all of his henchmen to fight Simon and rescue Kim!" Scott retold.
"Wait. You told me that you remembered fighting a gigantic purple-suited monster kidnapping her. You said he controlled people's minds and shot lightning bolts from his eyes or something, and that you kicked him so hard that he saw the curvature of the Earth." Ramona interjected confusedly.
"He said what? Kim asked, shaking her head in confusion. "That doesn't even—whatever. The point is, that Scott really just punched Simon when he saw us together."
"He made you remember all that?" Axel asked, his eyes widening very slightly upon hearing of Gideon's far-fetched memory alterations.
"Yeah," Scott muttered angrily, clenching his fists while raising them. He unclenched them.
"How'd you get your real memories back, then?" Blaze questioned.
"I merged with the NegaScott after we fought." Scott replied.
"That your evil twin or something?" Max surmised, not knowing what to think after hearing Scott say that he merged with NegaScott. The rest of the vigilantes felt similarly.
"Not really, I guess. It was actually more of a manifestation of all my forgotten past mistakes. I went on a wilderness sabbatical when Ramona left me to get out of the pit of sadness I'd fallen in, when Kim and me saw it. I tried to fight it, thinking that killing it was the only way to get over her, but then Kim told me I couldn't run from my mistakes forever or I'd keep making them. So then we stopped fighting, and he just. . .became a part of me, I guess."
"Wow. . ." Knives whispered, gazing down, then back up at Scott.
"Sounds like it was a really heavy moment for you," Blaze commented. She was a bit surprised to hear someone like Scott succumbing to depression, but could see it under these circumstances, as it was painfully obvious that he loved Ramona. Hell, he'd gone as far as to take on a league of supernatural evil exes for her.
That was. . .intense to watch, actually. Kim thought, lowering her own eyes. Although she'd never admit it to him, she was proud of him for making things right with Ramona and accepting his mistakes. Maybe—just maybe, Scott Pilgrim had hope after all.
"Yeah, it kind of was," Scott said nodding slowly. "But what were we talking about before this, actually?" He asked innocently, scratching his head.
Kim sighed inwardly. Maybe not. "Gideon, Scott." She said through gnashed teeth with her eyes closed.
"Oh right," He said nonchalantly with a smile, before his mood suddenly turned furious. His head beginning to glow once again. "That bastard! He's totally mental! Do you know what he was going to do to Ramona? He was going to put her in a cyro. . .cy. . ."
"Cryogenic, babe," Ramona assisted.
"Thanks," Scott briefly uttered before returning to his story. "Cryogenic freezer thingy that he was gonna keep her in until she admitted to loving him! Like he did to all his other ex-girlfriends!"
The heroes of Wood Oak City did absolutely nothing to stop their distaste from showing.
"Man, this dude is in serious need of a check up," Skate remarked.
"For his screwed up head, you mean?" Adam scoffed, frowning. "No kidding."
"Forget that," Axel growled. "His ass should've been thrown in an asylum long ago."
"Just deplorable." Blaze spat, shaking her head with a gritty frown.
"He even said that he owned me." Ramona added disgustedly, scrunching her face up at the very thought of what he said to her at the Chaos Theatre that day. "To him, I was just a possession." She took a short pause and added icily: "But the only damn things he'll possess are broken bones before me and Scott kill him."
"Yeah!" Scott agreed, once again clenching a fist.
"And we'll be with you," Blaze said giving a sharp nod.
"Yeah. . ." Ramona said thankfully, turning her gaze toward Blaze and her friends.
"Yeah, thanks, guys! This is gonna rock! Having all of us against the Exes. . ." Scott trailed off excitedly, fingers twitching with excitement.
"That's enough about The League for now," Ramona said gently before turning to the vigilantes with an inquisitive smile. "I'm curious. What about you, guys?"
"Huh?" Blaze said, now confused due to the wording of Ramona's question.
"Every syndicate has its top players," Ramona clarified in a knowing tone. "who are Mr. X's?"
Blaze slightly declined her head in understanding. "There's two normal ranking top ones, and two higher top ranking ones. One of the lower high ranking ones is a woman named Electra, or just Elle for short. She's a dominatrix with an electric whip that she can extend to her will."
Scott shifted uncomfortably upon hearing that she was a dominatrix. "Uh, those kinds of women are kinda creepy. . .is she gonna be wearing any of that weird S&M stuff?"
Stacey, greatly disturbed by hearing her own brother reference bondage, suddenly grew wide eyed and stiff. "Scott, PLEASE don't say 'S&M' in my immediate presence, ever again."
"Oh, suck it up, dude," Ramona chided with a smile after getting a good laugh at what Stacey had said. "You can take her."
"In addition to what Blaze said, her 'whip' is, in its base form, a bionic arm, that has the power to generate astronomically powerful electrical explosions, capable of covering an entire area." Zan added. Knives flinched upon hearing that one of Electra's arms were bionic.
"Whoa," Ramona said, surprised at hearing about Electra's abilities. "Some hell of a dominatrix."
"Yeah, and chances are, she'll try and put moves on you, Scott." Blaze informed, turning to face the figure of Ramona's affections. "I'm pretty sure she does it to every guy she sees—weather they're actually on her side or not. She's just loose like that." The other vigilantes silently agreed.
Ramona scoffed angrily. "That slut even looks at my boyfriend the wrong way, and her neck'll meet the edge of this sword." Ramona scoffed angrily, grasping The Power of Loyalty, yet not lifting it all the way. Max chuckled.
"I just hope my highlight doesn't get punched out again," Knives said somewhat meekly, running her fingers through the bright red streak in her dark hair.
"Huh?" Skate said confusedly.
"She's just stuck on the fact that this chick has a bionic arm. The drummer for The Clash at Demonhead punched her so hard with her bionic arm that the dye came out of her hair." Kim supplied, in monotone.
"Knew there was something sketchy about that band. . ." Skate couldn't help but mutter silently to himself, the comment having gone unheard.
"Really? God. . ." That was Max, as he absently ran a hand through his own hair. "Didn't know that was. . .even possible, actually. That drummer must have a hell of a punch on her. But anyway, the next top Syndicate executive, standard ranking, is actually a kangaroo named Roo."
Scott, Ramona, Knives, and Stacey expressed mild surprise at this, yet it was the very latter mentioned of them that seemed to have her mind completely blown. As her mouth dropped slightly agape, an Info box popped up next to Stacey.
Stacey Pilgrim
Status: Wants to think she's seen and heard it all at this point, but probably hasn't.
"Ugh! Lemme guess, the freakin' kangaroo can box, too, can't it?" She demanded sardonically, throwing her hands up.
"Bingo!" Skate grinned, pointing at Stacey.
"Of course it can!" Stacey retorted believingly, rolling her eyes deep in the back of her head. She crossed her arms, simply frustrated at the mere fact that she couldn't make any logic of how an animal could possibly be part of a deadly crime syndicate. "How does any of this crap even work?!"
"Well, it's not so much as Roo joining as much as his abusive master, Bruce, joining. That bastard is an evil clown with a whip that gets hired by different organizations for assassinations. Of course, he wouldn't be able to get things done as easy without Roo, so unfortunately he's dragged into it. And if the little guy refuses, Bruce really lays into him with that whip. . .damn shame." Max said broodingly, shaking his head at the end.
"That's so horrible!" Knives gasped. She then bitterly added: "God, PETA should, like, push him into traffic or something."
"Let's hope they haven't been corrupted along with everything else," Kim said, her eyes drifting lazily to the right.
"He'd better hope they get to him before I do," Max replied darkly to Knives' comment, ignoring Kim's. The wrestler gave a nightmare-inducing scowl, accentuated by the scar running vertically across his left eye. "Bruce has been doing this barbaric shit for too long."
As a man that was quite fond of nature (and thus God's creatures), it was only natural that Max would take an instant disliking who those who abused them in such a way. And if they were a part of The Syndicate, oh, he would personally see to it that they got theirs. It wasn't like it was hard for him of all people to accomplish, after all. He was extremely skilled in the art art of Professional Wrestling, and none of his muscles were for show.
"When we run into them, don't hurt Roo more than necessary. He always runs off when we take out his master." Blaze said, the statement directed at Scott, Ramona, and Knives. The brunette's tone had been tinged with sorrow, as she knew for a fact that they would need to attack Roo, even if said attacks were purely meant to be defensive. She'd seen them fight, and the kangaroo was deathly afraid of that whip that Bruce always threatened him with, so as reacting due to fear, Roo attacked them, and he was definitely no slouch in terms of combat. Blaze didn't like that it came to attacking him at all, but she and her team needed to keep themselves safe.
"Y-yeah, o-okay," Scott stuttered, clearly finding Max to be frightening at that moment. "Kangaroo. . .Max. . .scary. . ."
"Dude, chill out. He's not mad at you." Ramona said with a grin.
"I-I-I ain't scared!" Scott retorted nervously."
"You just said you were scared, retard," Kim smirked. "We can hear. And you look like you're about to piss yourself."
"Heh, sorry about that, man," Max apologized earnestly, his usual amiability having returned. "Didn't mean to scare ya. I was just fired up about this whole Roo thing, you know?"
"You seem to really like animals," Stacey easily deduced.
"Hey, what can I say, I'm a nature guy," Came Max's response, accompanied with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, it is kind of sad, though," Scott said, returning to the topic of Roo. "And it kinda sucks that he won't even be able to really defend himself if I have to hit him. I mean, what can a kangaroo really. . .do besides. . .hop, I guess?"
"Kangaroos are killing machines." Zan said smartly, yet gravely, crossing his arms. "Their legs are powerful enough to let them hop at 35 miles per hour and jump up to six feet into the air. They are prone to kicking if they feel the need to."
Adam spoke next. "Not to mention their tails are so strong that they can balance on them. And that's gonna make it hard on us since Roo uses his like a weapon. He's a boxer too, remember?"
"Oh. Yeah," Scott mumbled.
"Either way, these are some pretty scary stories. I mean, first there's a dominatrix that has a bionic arm and electric superpowers, and now there's this boxing kangaroo with his bastard evil clown master. Like, what are you guys gonna say next?" Stacey chimed in.
"Well, for the first high ranker," Adam started. "There's a dude named Ash. He's. . .flamboyant, eccentric, gay, and has a complex personality."
"I'm totally used to gayness, man," Scott said with a small laugh. "My former roommate was pretty darn gay."
"Yeah. Douchebag stole my last boyfriend and turned him gay, too." Stacey added, though a smile flickered across her lips, the event now funny to her. It was apparently funny to Blaze, Adam, and Skate, as they all laughed a little. Axel and Max let amused smiles cross their features— Axel's slight, Max's broad.
"What did you mean when you said he had a 'complex personality'?" Knives asked.
"Well, he has these tendencies to go from calm to totally mad at the drop of a coin." Adam explained.
"Sounds more like he's bipolar to me," Kim commented dryly. Adam laughed.
"Kind of, but being bipolar would technically mean he'd would experience way more intense mood swings than just temporary anger. Ash is just weird like that, I s'pose." Adam shrugged with a chuckle.
"Then I guess fighting against him never gets boring, huh?" Kim smirked, with ease that surprised her, resting her chin in her hand. She found that she was sort of enjoying talking to Adam.
"Oh you don't know the half of it. He's got superhuman speed, and he's really strong." Adam replied.
"And instead of using regular punches and kicks, he uses these. . ." Max laughingly trailed off, searching for words. "Ballet moves and these slaps to fight. And somehow he makes 'em work, but c'mon, you can't get much weirder than that."
"And once we beat him into submission, he starts crying!" Skate laughed.
"Wow," Ramona grinned. "And I joke about Scott being gay. . .sometimes. But still, this dude takes it to a whole new level."
"Just wait till you see him," Blaze chuckled.
"Yeah, that reminds me," Scott said. "At what points are we going to be seeing these guys? Not all at once, right?"
"Oh, no," Blaze said, and then went on to explain. "Electra patrols the streets, so it's likely we'll see her early on. God knows when we'll end up running into Ash or Roo. But as for the last Syndicate enforcer, we won't be seeing him until much, much later."
"Why? Who is he?" Scott asked, leaning forwards.
The room got serious as there was a microscopic pause. During which Blaze and Axel shared a quick and knowing look—it was as if Blaze was telling Axel: 'It'd be best if you told this one.'
"Shiva." Axel simply said, his voice having lowered some with anger. "X's right-hand man. His bodyguard."
Kim narrowed her eyes just slightly. So that was Mr. X's right-hand man, more importantly, the one who'd kidnapped Adam. It was on that sole basis alone that the redhead decided that she particularly disliked this Shiva person. What kind of name was Shiva, anyway? It was a stupid name if you asked her. She'd also noticed that a rather sour look had appeared on Skate's face, too.
"He sounds like a douche," Kim blurted out, before before looking away. The words had just flown out before she could stop them, and Kim usually had much more control of her impulses than that. Luckily, nobody seemed to be too concerned.
"He is," Axel said. "The heartless bastard. Back in the Rakushin incident, he was the one that tried to pose as the General to give our military the green light to start the war."
Adam flashed Kim a brief smile, as if he'd read her earlier thoughts. Kim blinked in surprise and blushed, yet said nothing. But still, she felt. . .good just then. For Adam. Shiva had kidnapped him—the prick—and Adam had given him what he deserved by exposing him and kicking his ass.
"Well, what can he do?" Ramona asked.
"He's fast, and he's got superhuman strength to the point where he can lift a person with one arm, and use one arm to push himself into the air and across a room." Axel explained.
"Whoa!" That was Scott.
"He can also use fire like I can, and he's got superhuman agility." Out of his peripheral vision, he could almost make out Knives raising an eyebrow.
"That so?" The petite Asian asked. Axel turned his head slightly to face her.
"Yeah, but nowhere near as agile as you, though." He said, keeping his face hard. Knives smiled brightly in response, leaning back into the couch.
"And what's really worth mentioning are his fighting skills. Shiva's a monster with his hands—and that's almost putting it lightly."
"What's his style?" Ramona asked.
"Koppojutsu."
Ramona sucked air in between her teeth almost apprehensively, but not quite. She knew of some martial arts styles, like Kickboxing and stuff, and she felt confident that she could deal with that easily if she ever needed to. But actually knowing Ninjutsu herself, she also knew that Koppojutsu was savage, and if Shiva was as heartless as Axel said, then this man would definitely be nothing to take lightly. She even suddenly had instant respect for Adam as a fighter. If he'd taken on a no-mercy Koppojutsu practitioner one-on-one and lived to tell about it, then it was only a testament to how good of a fighter he really was.
"Yeah." Axel nodded.
"So he's a ninja then?" She asked.
"Not really. Yeah, it's a form of Ninjutsu, but Shiva's not so much the ninja type. Apparently though, he does do some assassin work. You can imagine how that goes." Axel scoffed.
"Yeah," Ramona nodded, knowing that someone like Shiva would make the perfect assassin.
"And that's not even it. He has this power he can tap into that gives him super speed. His 'Super Shiva Mode'." Axel finished.
"Wait," Stacey started, fear for their safety (especially for Scott) creeping into her voice. "If he's an assassin, isn't there a chance he'll try to kill you guys in your sleep or something?"
He shook his head. "X's gonna want us alive. That way he can try his twisted mind games on us, so he'll keep Shiva at his side regarding that. Know he's happy about that." Axel said bitterly and utterly knowingly, referring to Shiva.
"Why?" Knives asked.
"I'm his rival," Axel replied. "He'd get to take a crack at me, and he's had it out for me ever since we first met." He let out a somewhat bitter chuckle. "We're polar opposites, too. Case in point: He can keep his cool no matter what, and I've always been a bit of a hothead." He paused briefly. "And I'm more ready than ever to put him down."
"We'll be ready too." Ramona said seriously.
"Good," Blaze nodded, finally speaking after Axel had finished informing them on Shiva. "Well, that pretty much does it for all the Syndicate enforcers. We were going to head out to investigate a few places tonight, but if you guys are wiped from tonight's events, we can start tomorrow." She said considerately, turning to Scott, Knives and Ramona, knowing they obviously weren't used to such a style of working.
"Who said I was tired?" Scott grinned, leaping energetically over the arm of the loveseat.
"And like I said, if Scott's ready, so am I," Ramona said, standing up in a much more normal fashion, picking up The Power of Loyalty as she did so.
"I guess that means you're coming too, Knives?" Max inquired with a smirk.
"Totally!" Knives said, effortlessly jumping up off of the couch in a frontflip, right over Ramona, landing gracefully before the vigilantes.
"Those Syndicate assholes tried to ruin Shatter Band, so, I shall punish them!" Scott declared dramatically, holding a fist in midair.
"What are you talking about, Scott?" Kim demanded.
Scott began to sweat, fearful of facing Kim's wrath should she not believe his story. "Well, um. . .while I was. . .hiding you. . .and getting you safe, uh, The Syndicate guys. . .uh, kind of trashed your drums. . .yeah."
Kim's eyes bored into his soul. ". . .How bad? How bad did they trash my drums?" She demanded hotly.
"L-like bad." Scott answered.
"Damn it! Damn them!" Kim growled, smashing her fist down on the arm of the couch, causing Stacey to jump slightly in surprise. After her anger subsided, she simply hung her head, her eyes reflecting no emotion.
"I'm gonna get them replaced for you, Kim I promise!" Scott said resolutely, in an attempt to both reassure her and cheer her up.
"Shut up, Scott," Kim snapped in a low voice, still not looking up at him. "You don't have any money. Just forget it. Forget Shatter Band. Just forget it all." To someone who hadn't known Kim as long as Scott did, it would've appeared as though she hadn't truly cared that her drums were destroyed, but in actuality, she was alot more upset than her tone let on. Kim loved playing the drums. And to hear that they'd been crushed, Kim herself had felt likewise.
"Kim, I can get more money by fighting bad guys! Like the the Exes! And thugs! They explode into money, remember?!" Scott reminded.
"You know, you can 'just forget' pretty much anything. The one thing I want you to forget, you can't?" She inquired sourly. "Whatever."
Kim Pine Translation: Fine, Scott, You win. You'd better stick to your promise so we can replace my drums.
"Whatever," She grumbled irritably upon eyeing the Info box.
"So. . .I guess we'll just let ourselves out then." Stacey said a little awkwardly, getting up from her seat. Kim doing the same with a sigh. "Since you guys are going, and all. Subspace Door in the back, right?"
"Yeah. . .Stacey, wait—" Ramona started, remembering the situation with the doors, Stacey turned to face her. Kim continued on her way. "The Subspace doors have been. . .locked, or something. Like, I can open them but for some reason nobody else can. How'd you two even manage to get in here?"
"Uh, yeah, we know. We couldn't open them either, so we used our Sub-Trac cards to get through." (Fun Fact: Stacey and Kim purchased these approximately 3.5 days after the events of Volume 6.)
"Sub-Trac card," Ramona mused. "So I guess these guys have to use those to get into Subspace. At least until we figure out what's going on with the doors."
"What's that? Some kind of key?" Blaze surmised.
"Well, not really. It just lets you pass through a Subspace Door without having to actually open it. Handy, but not essential. Well, I guess now it is."
"We'll have to worry about getting some for ourselves later," Blaze said, her following words to be laced with determination. "Right now we've got a city to clean up."
"Whaaaat?," Scott complained. "We're just cleaning up? I thought we were doing cool stuff like fighting criminals!"
Skate burst out laughing at Scott's cluelessness. "Dude, we are!"
"Do you know anything, Scott?" Stacey groaned, dragging a hand across her face with mild annoyance. She put up a hand in a weary gesture. "Just. . .be careful out on these streets, alright?"
"No promises!" Responded a smiling Scott.
A/N: Hey guys! Thats one more chapter down!
Now, a few things I wanted to discuss.
First off, I know I said that the characters wouldn't gain any extra abilities or such in the last chapter, but with Ramona putting her foot down and telling Scott that she'll fight by Scott's side no matter the circumstances, it just felt extremely necessary for her to receive a power sword for it, and it's what I feel like it would have happened if she'd said that in the books. I may do other stuff like this in future chapters, but rest assured, if I do end up giving another character (from either side) a slight change, or added power or weapon, it won't be too crazy and it will make sense.
Secondly, those who have played the Scott Pilgrim videogame will recognize that the game's version of a Subspace Highway was featured in this chapter right off the bat. There will be small references to the videogame dotted throughout this fanfic, and the trippy Substance Highway is one of them. (Not all Subspace Highways in the story will be like this.)
And for fans who have beaten SoRRv5 and unlocked all the characters may have one question: 'If this is taking place after Remake, then where's Rudra?' Don't fret. I wouldn't dare leave her out of this story. :) She may not have been mentioned in this chapter as a 'Syndicate Executive', but she WILL be appearing in this story later down the road and given substantial screen time (or is it page time?) as well. The reason she is not mentioned by the heroes in this chapter is because this story is set after the events of the Mania ending (true ending) of Remake. And the heroes don't encounter Rudra on the route that must be taken take to get the Mania ending—only on a route that leads straight to one of the bad endings. (Those who have played SoRRv5 know exactly what I mean by these 'routes'.) So naturally, they would be unaware of her existence. Rudra's arc in this story will take place after her own ending in v5 (where she rescues her little sister from the Syndicate Stronghold), which presumably takes place shortly after the heroes defeat Mr. X. And yes, I do plan on having Rudra fight against Roxie, (this will only be a side fight, though. Roxie's main fight will be against the main nine characters) as well as having her eventually meet Blaze face-to-face (not necessarily at the same time as the fight with Roxie). How they'll react to each other? That'd be telling XD.
Lastly, for those who are confused by Axel's mentioning of the 'Super Shiva' mode, it was a new attribute given to Shiva in SoRRv5.1 (the update patch for Remake). As referenced in the chapter, it allows Shiva to move at SUBSTANTIALLY higher speeds. I have decided to include this as one of his abilities for him to use in this story.
So yeah! I had a ton of fun writing this chapter, particularly, having Knives take on the role of a main character. She's my favorite Scott Pilgrim character, and I figured that her abilities would really be helpful in fighting The Syndicate and the Exes. And even though it was just for a sentence, I liked that I was able to have Knives talk about her fighting style. She obviously knows how to fight, but O'Malley never really gave it a name, and nor will I for the sake of this being a crossover. And for those of you SP fans that were wondering how Ramona knew so much about Koppojutsu, let me explain. She seems to be knowledgeable in several styles, be it just hearing about them or knowing them herself. She learned Ninjutsu from Roxy, and briefly mentions Kickboxing in Volume 5. And especially since Koppo is a form of Ninjutsu, I figured that Ramona would've at least known about it. Furthermore, since The Syndicate is involved, expect familiar SoR enemies (and bosses) to appear in this story.
Until next time!
—Stefan422
