"I can't say whether or not it will hurt," Mercer said to Tsukiumi as he scraped his individual claws against each other, making sparks fly off of them. "But I do know it doesn't last long."
The tsundere Sekirei struggled to pick herself up. She clenched her right hand into a fist, and a sword of water formed around her hand. "That is a pleasure you will never experience, you monster!"
"It's Mercer," he said dryly. Rather than replying to his insult, Tsukiumi raised her water blade and charged towards him. It was clear that she wasn't even at half her strength. She got close to him, and swung her sword at him. He caught it in his left palm without effort. "Pathetic."
He saw that she had a look of both shock and terror, but she wasn't looking at him; she was staring at her caught arm. Alex's curiosity kicked in, and he looked at it too, and saw that her water sword had been completely frozen.
"This is interesting," he said. He then placed his free hand on her stomach, and gently shoved her away, sending her back about twenty feet, landing on her back. Mercer looked over his claw that had caught the aqua blade. "It seems you are more useful that I originally thought, Akitsu." He then walked over to the now downed Water Sekirei, ready to go in for the kill. He had not taken three steps before the dark-haired teen, whom Alex came to conclude was her Ashikabi, stepped in fromt of him. Alex silently thanked Akitsu for showing him the Sekirei Plan and the rules in its entirety.
"I don't know who or WHAT you are," the boy said to him. "But I will NOT just stand by and let you hurt Tsukiumi!"
"I think you already know who I am, kid. And I am what ever I choose to be. Now please get out of my way."
"Why? So you can murder Tsukiumi in cold blood like you did Akitsu?" Minato's voice was slowly growing in both anger and fear.
"I did her a favor," Mercer replied. "She wished for death for most of her life."
"And what makes you think THAT?"
"Easy. I consumed her. I saw everything she ever saw, and all her memories are now in my mind. It also seems I can do what she could as well. And thanks to one of my favorite things about myself..." Minato watched as Mercer was slowly covered by a thick black liquid, and then began to change shape. When the ooze melted away, Minato took a step back in shock. He was now looking at Akitsu.
"I can even BE her," the stoic Sekirei said in her own voice. The one thing that made Minato positive that he was staring at an illusion was that the normally emotionless woman smirked at him. She then transformed back into Mercer.
"What..." Minato was trying with all his will not to go into a catatonic state. "What ARE you?"
Alex reached out and grabbed him by the neck tightly enough to have a grip that couldn't be broken, but didn't choke the teen either, and lifted him into the air. "I'm someone who also fought for a lost cause once." He made his free arm became clawed again, and he prepared to gut the Ashikabi like a fish. But before he could thrust his claw forward, he felt something holding onto it. He looked over and saw the brunette girl looking sternly at him.
"I don't care if what Minato's message said about you is true. I won't let you bring any harm or pain to him."
Alex couldn't help but smirk at her. "And just how do you intend to stop me?"
"Like this." She wrenched his arm back, and Alex let out a sound that was a combination of a scream and a gasp as he let go of Minato. She had actually made him feel a slight sensation of agony. "And like THIS!" She clenched her free hand into a fist, and punched him hard in the chest. He went flying, sliding and skidding on the road until finally he came to a rolling stop. He shook his head for a moment due to dizziness. He looked over and saw that her punch had sent him at least three hundred feet away from them. He stood up, and grinned while he made his arms into their lethal claws. He had finally found an opponent who could probably hold their own against him. He began running towards her, and she also charged in.
XXXXXX
As Minato stood back and prayed that Musubi would have better luck with Alex than Tsukiumi did, his phone began ringing.
"Is this important?" He desperately asked without daring to pry his eyes away from Musubi and Mercer as they began attacking each other.
"Minato! This is BEYOND bad!" Matsu shrieked. "You have got to get Musubi, Tsukiumi and Ku away from that THING right NOW!"
"Thing? You mean Mercer?"
"Yes Mercer! None of us stand a chance against him! He almost brought a city to its knees singlehandedly! Minato, I think he's only toying with Musubi right now."
Hearing this theory, Minato tuned back into the fight, and hoped Matsu was wrong.
XXXXXX
Musubi struggled to keep herself away from being torn apart. Her clothes were tattered, and she was covered in small scrapes and cuts. Alex had no visible damage on him, and the intense battle did fatigue him at all thanks to Akitsu. He stomped on the ground with tremendous strength and caused a tremor, which resulted in Musubi losing her balance. She landed on her back and saw Mercer jump into the air over her and put one of his claws in front of him. Before he could impale her, Musubi rolled out of his way as he landed, and saw that his strength had betrayed him. As he struggled to free his clawed fingers from the ground, she kicked him in the side of his ribcage and sent him flying into and clear through the wall surrounding Maison Izumo. He picked himself up and staggered over to the hole he had made, and saw Musubi looking intently at him in a fighting stance.
"Not bad," he said to her. "But I got a few tricks of my own!" His right arm became his whipfist, and he launched it at Musubi, who sidestepped out of its way, and grabbed it.
"Bad move," Mercer said with a grin. He then willed his extended arm to retract to normal length, while Musubi still had a grasp on it. As she came flying towards him, Alex balled up his clawed hand into the closest thing to a fist it could.
He timed the punch perfectly, and sent Musubi flying. Much like he did earlier, she came to a rolling stop in the middle of the road. As she struggled to stay conscious and failed, Alex jumped through the hole and out onto the street. He reared his whip-wielding arm back, and prepared to launch it into the Sekirei's neck. Before he could take action, a vine as thick as a hundred year old tree sprang out in front of him, making him jump back in surprise. He watched as more and more plants grew at an impossible rate around him, slowly encasing him.
"Another one," he said to himself. He prepared his whipfist. "Maybe I can KILL this one without INTERRUPTIONS!" He put all his energy into the whip, and slashed in a lethal 360 degree arc, cutting down his would-be prison. He jumped over to the one who had tried to entomb him, and raised his clawed arm into the air. When he landed, he froze in shock. Sitting down with his back against the stone wall was the dark-haired Ashikabi, and hugging him fearfully was the little blonde girl. Mercer silently asked himself the question if she was also a sekirei, which he already knew the answer to.
"Onii-chan, I couldn't stop him," the little girl said. She looked up to Alex's raised claw, and let tears roll down her face. "I'm scared."
"It's okay Ku," Minato said to her as he put his arms around her protectively. He looked up to Mercer with tears of his own. "Please. If you have any sense of right and wrong... If you have any FEELINGS..."
Alex Mercer just stood above them with his lethal claw still in the air, ready to kill if told to do so.