Chapter Seven
The Battle continues
As Six-shooter was dispatching with his double, Blade was having problems of his own. The counterpart clad in white had sprinted from the stage and vicsiously attacked him with a whirlwind of knife and hook attacks.
He had managed to deflect each one, trying to stab in between.
Two slashes with the knife and Blade's hat was ripped off. This truly pissed Blade off as he reached his hook hand behind Blade II's left knee, pulling it out as it snagged into the puppet's wood. Yanking on it, he tried to detach the leg, and nearly succeeded until Blade II's knife hand quickly came down and cut off Blade's hook hand with one quick slash.
He had been pulling so hard, Blade tumbled backward with the force of the cut. As his double approached, it lifted its knife hand as a single bullet ripped into the knee Blade had been attacking, blowing it off at the knee as the second Blade collapsed onto the ground.
"I owed you that one Ghost face." Dollman said as he passed by clutching his gun, "Now go kill the son of a bitch."
Blade got to his feet, raised his knife had in a salute and then moved to his fallen opponent who was struggling to get to his feet.
Running, Blade began to slash at any part of his double he could get his knife into. A hand flew off, then the hat, white hair and finally, both arms as the twisted version of himself lay there, writhing around, trying to move.
Looking down, Blade's head cocked to one side as if trying to decide what to do. Then, he raised the knife and brought it down in between the puppet's eyes, a crack was heard as a small amount of green liquid oozed out from the head.
Raising the knife hand in salute, Blade turned to see how the others were fairing.
Rick had been able to continue his assault on Krauss with a few good punches here and there, but now, Krauss had gained the upper hand, utilizing a small section of the stage and ripping it off from its base, hitting Rick in the side of the head and stunning him. Now, it was all Rick could do to block the onslaught of punches coming down on him as Krauss knelt over him.
Bringing his knees up, he struck Krauss in the back flipping him forward and off of him as both men got to their feet.
From behind, Rick could hear Ginger's voice saying, "Come back here you ugly bitch!"
Titania had not gone far. She was by no means retreating, rather, trying to get this tiny woman into a better position to ambush her. By the side of the stage, she turned, brandishing her whip and lashing out to Ginger, who tasted the end of the whip as it cracked on her cheek.
Reaching up, she felt the blood dripping down as she snarled, brandishing a small dagger loaned to her from Jester.
"Is that all you have?" Asked Ginger as she moved to circle the blonde.
The whip shot out toward her again, this time, she brought up her arm as the whip wrapped around her arm and with a tremendous tug, yanked it from Titania's grasp.
The blonde puppet wasted no time as she rushed and tackled Ginger to the ground, pummeling her face with her fists.
The hard wood and plastic took its toll as Ginger fought back, trying to defend herself.
Suddenly, she saw something on top of the stage leap off; Mrs. Leech.
Landing on top of Titania, she grabbed a handful of hair and began yanking on it, pulling small amounts of it out as she did so. As her head reared back, Ginger's knife began to stab into her chest repeatedly.
Small sounds of screaming could be heard as Titania, reached behind, pulling Mrs. Leech over her heard and onto the floor where she kicked the dark haired puppet in the head hard.
Wasting no time, Ginger rushed Titania, tackling her back to the ground and, taking a handful of hair, began to slam Titania's head repeatedly into the floor.
"Die, you freaking bitch!" she screamed with each head slam.
After three more times of slamming her head down, Titania moved no more. Slowly, Ginger got to her feet and moved over to Mrs. Leech to check on her.
Helping her up to a sitting position, she asked, "You okay?"
Mrs. Leech nodded as her mouth suddenly formed into an "O" seconds before Ginger felt a burning sensation in her chest. Looking down, the tip of the dagger she had used was now protruding from her chest. She blinked a few times, her mind trying to come to grips with what it was seeing before she tilted to the side onto the floor.
Looking down at her, Titania nodded once before Mrs. Leech was upon her, brandishing the whip. Wrapping it around the blonde puppet's neck, Mrs. Leech began pulling her toward the stage, Titania clawing at her neck, trying to get it off.
Throwing the other end over a small post, Mrs. Leech heaved down, hanging Titania in the air, thrashing around. True, she didn't need oxygen, but it put her in an awkward position.
A slight hissing noise could be heard as well as a familiar laugh. Mrs. Leech turned and saw Blade and Six-shooter coming to her aid.
As Titania looked down, the small cowboy began to laugh as he drew out five guns and aimed them at her. There were five shots, each one aimed at her neck as the body of Titania fell onto the stage, the same green liquid leaking out from the neck.
Dropping the whip, her head soon followed along with the rope as Mrs. Leech moved to kneel beside Ginger.
Decapitron, meanwhile had his own hands full with Torch. The two had been exchanging fire and electrical shots at one another while running back and forth behind and in front of the stage as Torch's latest shot caught the left drape on fire.
Moving behind the stage, Decapitron aimed and fired toward Torch's back, encasing the puppet in an electrical burst. Raising his flamethrower in the air, as if in pain, he caught the upper drape of the Inn on fire before falling onto the floor, the same green liquid dripping out of his open jaw.
Turning toward his wife, Decapitron didn't see the small puppet under the stage emerge, rolling on its Tank tracks as it turned and shot Decapitron with its own electrical burst. Sparks flew from the top of Decapitron's head as he collapsed to the floor.
The screen on the Tank puppet, showed the face grinning broadly as it turned its weapon toward Blade, Six and Leech woman.
Suddenly, Blade leapt toward Tank, attempting to bend the end of the weapon up and away from the others.
Six immediately began to fire his five guns on Tank, whose energy weapon began firing at whatever it could hit.
From out of nowhere, Dollman dropped down on top of Tank, aiming his gun into the center of the puppet and began firing as Six stopped shooting for fear of hitting Blade or the Dollman.
Tank whirled around in circles, trying to throw either of them off, eventually losing Blade who had no way of holding on due to the loss of his hook hand.
The gun he was carrying was lost as he gripped onto the tip of the energy weapon, quickly realizing this was a bad move as it was burning hot to the touch.
One more spin and Brick was thrown from on top of the puppet, rolling a few feet away from Blade.
As Tank stopped, the image on the screen was that of pure rage, aiming its electrical blaster at Brick. It sparked to life, the tip glowing when a single electrical burst struck the viewscreen and continued on, encasing the puppet in an electrical field.
Looking to his right, Brick saw Decapitron leaning on the side of the stage, his fists clenched as the electrical beam from his head continued to hit Tank.
After a few moments, Tank began to smoke before the view screen exploded in a shower of sparks and the puppet moved no more.
A sound caught their attention as they looked and saw a bloodied Rick standing before Krauss, on all fours on the ground. A solid kick struck Krauss in the chest, causing him to roll over onto his back, but Rick didn't stop, rushing to him, he began to kick him in the ribs over and over, a wild, maniacal look on his face. A man possessed with pure rage.
"I…Won't...let…you...pervert…the…formula!" he screamed out with each kick to the fallen foe.
Moving toward Rick, Decapitron shot out a small electrical shock to Rick's back. Not enough to harm but to get his attention.
"What the hell?" Rick shouted, spinning around to face the puppet.
Looking down, he saw Decapitron looking back at him before it shook its head and holding its right hand up as if to tell him it was enough.
Breathing heavily, Rick stared down at him and asked, "We need to end this, Andre! If we don't he'll just come back, he'll tell others about the formula, we can't allow that!"
Once more, Decapitron shook his head. His hand pointed to the other puppets and then pointed to his chest.
Realization dawned on Rick as he let out an exasperated sigh, "I get it. It's your formula. You decide what to do with it."
Decapitron nodded.
At first, Pinhead wasn't sure what to make of his double. There were similarities in the face, but many differences in the attitude. Moving cautiously toward him, the one with his face tilted his head slightly before flexing his fists and brass knuckles before rushing and grabbing Pinhead.
Breaking free of his grasp, Pinhead landed two solid jabs to the face of his enemy, causing him to move back a few feet. Looking up, the other Pinhead suddenly turned and began moving for the staircase as Pinhead followed.
Moving past the other combatants, they chased each other up the winding stairs until they reached the balcony, high over the battle. Moving to the edge, Black Pinhead motioned for his doppleganger to come and get him.
Pinhead moved cautiously toward the other one who began to circle him, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The two watched each other's movements, looking for the right time to attack. Finally, Pinhead lunged forward, wrapping his large arms around the mid-section of the other Pinhead. Several punches came down on Pinhead's back as he continued to try and push his evil twin over the edge, Black Pinhead's feet twisted to try and stop his momentum.
In one fluid movement, Black Pinhead spun around, twisting, so Pinhead was now near the edge as he momentarily let go of the waist and grabbed the railing above, sliding under the feet of Black Pinhead, who quickly dropped down to pin him.
Now it was Pinhead was being shoved over the edge of the balcony by his counterpart, sending punch after punch with his brass knuckles onto the chest and face of the large puppet who was trying in vain to deflect them and being shoved over the edge.
Looking up at his own face, Pinhead came to a realization. Grabbing the waist of Black Pinhead once more, he flipped his legs up, sending the pair of them over the edge. Tumbling through the air, both of them made contact with the floor as Black Pinhead landed at an angle, his head cracking as the green fluid leaked out as his body convulsed for a moment and then stopped. Pinhead himself landed on the edge of the stage, striking his back as his lower half remained on the stage, his upper half landing on the floor. Splintered wood and pieces lay strewn beside him as his head looked toward his evil twin and simply nodded once before ceasing movement.
Brick thought he was the only one who had seen the pair of bodies fall to the ground and was moving toward them when Blade passed him in a run.
When he reached him, Blade had knelt to one knee, checking on his fallen comrade.
As he looked down at him, he couldn't help but think just how human these puppets really were. Showing compassion and emotion for each other.
As if sensing something, Blade turned toward Brick and suddenly his dagger eyes shot out.
Turning to look behind him, all he saw was the hand and scalpel of Dr. Death pierce into the center of his chest before he felt a strange sensation. A coldness filling his body as he shoved the blood red figure back, the scalpel remaining embedded in his chest.
An evil laugh filled the surroundings as Dr. Death chuckled for only a brief moment. From behind, a scepter reached around, the small blade on the side slicing through his head as it rolled forward off the body revealing Jester's angry face standing behind him, clutching the scepter.
