Chapter 25: Entity
[Outside Townsville Police Department, Downtown Townsville: 12.30am]
Brick is outside the Townsville Police Station when he received the latest updates in regards to the situation with the orphanage and also the military base. As he watched the footage from a tablet that belonged to one of the news reporter covering the Townsville Police Department, the footage of Boomer and Buttercup being badly injured by a single assailant is something he could not fathom. The assailant's strength and abilities definitely puts him up on a higher level than a normal Candyman, and Brick wonder if their opponent is one of the higher echelons of Him's organization. The second news coverage is even more grim, for it showed the incompetencies of the US Military in defending one of its own bases. This is essentially a PR disaster, for the entire base invasion force and their reinforcements had disappeared without a trace, and the only thing they left behind are the wrecks of their vehicles and also the destruction that they had brought on the base. How such an incident happened is something the media is trying to find out. However, seeing what just happened in the Townsville Police Department with the one they called Tigress, Brick pieced the puzzle together.
The Tigress left us not because she wanted to, but because she needs to, Brick postulated as he realized that only the Asian woman would have the power to bring in more reinforcements into the base as well as making their retreat possible. Brick could not help but to question the motive of sending in more reinforcements to the base only to pull them off all at once. However, he believed that there is another accomplice within the base that allowed this tactical retreat to happen, as the footage of a red sky and what appeared to be an inverted world also played a pivotal role to make this maskirovka to happen. Lastly, the image of Bubbles being hung in a mock crucifixion on a flag pole with a screen around her neck is the last draw. The image of the injured Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys are played constantly with these images, further cementing the despair within the heart of the fearful Townsville Population.
With the Blues and the Greens gone from both the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys, the only available force to keep Townsville under manageable levels is him. Blossom in more ways than one is out of action, both due to her temporary cauterization and also psychological breakdown. His cauterization is only temporary, and any strenuous movements would had opened the wound and cause further infection. As of this moment, the hospital personnel being dispatched to the scene are now treating the survivors of the Townsville Police Department siege. As he watched them wash away Blossom's wounds and also tried their best to close her wound, he can see that Blossom's mind is now in utter psychological shock for it, for the copper-haired young woman considers her rational thinking and intelligence as her greatest asset. With those being obliterated by the Tigress, it would take some time for her psychological trauma to heal. This puts Brick into a very messed up situation; if there are any more attacks by the Lunatics, as these kingpins of crime would call themselves, he is the last man standing. Brick honestly thinks that this is the worst kind of responsibility to give to him, as he is perhaps one of the most self-centered person he knows. And now the city would have to rely on him to save whatever that is left.
Brick could not help but to wonder what else these 'Lunatics" would do to Townsville. So far they had shown that they are audacious and brazen enough to attack even a military base without even batting an eye. They had also shown that they have no compulsion to strike at the weak, as shown with their assault on the orphanage. But so far, he is surprised that they have not struck at Townsville Prison and let the inmates out, nor did they target other public places. Brick wondered why have they not attacked other locations that would surely cause resources to be directed to them. Somehow, it feels like there is something missing, and this threat is further exacerbated by the 'declaration'. There must be something in the speech that would make sense to Brick if he delve deeper into it. But all Brick could think off are subjects that would make sense.
As he looked around to see what else he is missing, he noticed that one of the news crew is whispering to the news reporter. Suddenly he noticed that the scene is slowly being acted out again and again with the other news team. Suddenly all of them are now scrambling from whatever it is that they are doing and they are all frantically packing up their equipment and gear while the news reporters are the news crew are now rushing into their vehicles. Brick immediately recognized that the news crew had just received their latest assignment. As they frantically moved around and trying to mobilize, Brick stopped one of the man running in front of him.
"What's going on?" Brick asked the half-bald man.
"District Attorney Morningstar is about to make a speech in thirty minutes in regards to the events along with the Mayor!" Brick's eyes immediately opens wide and he off from the ground within seconds and speeds towards the District Attorney Office. As he maneuvered between the tall skyscrapers, he immediately realized how stupid he was. How could he had forgotten that Lilith Morningstar has a target painted on her head? She, the face of law and order in the city? Her death would make tonight's turn of events a debilitating death blow to all hope. Of course, The Mayor is kind of pointless and honestly he would just let the Mayor had it if it so happen that he is the target.
He speeds towards the District Attorney's office in a stream of crimson lightning, making a path in the black moonless night.
The district attorney's gray eyes are focused on the screen of her laptop as she types away and refer to very thick law books. As Brick watches his raven-haired guardian from the window, he could only try to imagine how stressful her life is right now. The countless piles of paperwork in her room is just ridiculous, and he is just going to add another level of stress into her life. Brick knocks on the glass of the window to get the district attorney's attention, knowing that a knock on the thirteenth floor of a building is bout to catch her attention. The bespectacled woman looks at her with her gray eyes and she walks towards the window. Brick waits as the raven-haired woman with the pixie-cut hairstyle opens her window to let him in.
"That's a nice surprise, what brings you here Brick?" The confident but tired voice of Lilith Morningstar asked the long-haired teenage boy as he floats through the window and into her office. The woman closes the window and now faces the ruby-eyed teenager with eyes looking for an answer. Brick is impressed by the woman's ability to calmly assess the situation. As he touches down on the ground, he grabs her arm causing a sense of alarm in the woman's eyes.
"What's wrong Brick?" The bespectacled woman asked her adopted son.
"We need to get out of here now. You're next." Brick's tone is stoically calm, and the woman looks at his red eyes with reluctance.
"I can't just leave-." The woman's protest is suddenly interrupted as the color from their surroundings faded away in shades of black,white and gray. The utter loss of color of their surroundings as well as the overbearing gloominess of the present atmosphere only confirmed his worst suspicions, and he turned back to look at his guardian. Brick frown as his expression shows that he is clearly displeased by this growing developments. He suddenly pulled the woman towards him and carried her in a bridal carry. Brick blasts the wall and the window where he just came in with his eye beams causing a sudden gust of wind entering into the office room. The gust of wind blew out some of the paperwork down on the streets below, and as the woman watched her work flew away Brick flew out towards the gap in a blaze of crimson lightning.
Or so he thought.
Somehow, Brick slams into an invisible force that is preventing from leaving the room. As he bounces back, he feels the headache coming from his forehead. The paperwork had stopped flying out from the room and Brick knew that something is very, very wrong with this situation. As he puts Lilith down, he touches the hole that he made with his eyes and realized that there is something tangible before him. Brick punches the invisible wall but all it did is to make the room shake from his blow and causing the ceiling to rain down some dust.
"We're getting out another way." Brick said, but then realized that his voice is not coming out from his mouth right. As he looks at Lilith, he noticed that she is also speaking to him but it seems that he is not able to hear her voice very well either, as her voice is accomoanied by a particular ringing noise. It was then that he realized that his hearing right now is being affected from the effects of the Los Noches leader.
Boomer's right, this suck, Brick said in his mind. He walks towards the door and pulls down part of the binds covering the entrance to her room. He sees that the staff of Lilith's office are now panicking and appears to be screaming. However Brick does not have the time to worry about these people and he grabs the pixie-haired woman by her arm and he opens the door.
As they rushed out together, Brick needs to figure out how he would be getting out of this mess,especially when one of his senses is essentially robbed from is now even more impressed with his sand-blonde brother, for he is able to fight with this enemy despite losing his sense of hearing entirely. But now his priority is to compensate his hearing with something of comparable usage. As Brick brings Lilith out from her department, he realized by accident the sense that he could use to compensate for his hearing.
He deliberately slips Lilith off his arm and a large gray arm breaks out from the wall and attempts to get Brick and Lilith in an inwards clothesline. As the wall crumbles, Brick comes face to face with a hulking brute with bulging arteries and veins. Brick folds his hand underneath him and immediately lands with his hands, before propelling himself forward with his arms and kicks the brute with both his legs through the gap caused by the brute. The brute slams to the wall and and Brick can sense the brute's 'intent'. It is a mix of many things, but he can definitely sense it with his 'mind's eye'.
This is going to be interesting, Brick said to himself. Brick's monochrome eyes glowed with flames as the brute looks at him with anger. The brute rushes towards him, catching Brick a little unaware. With a single palm strike to the brute's liver, the brute collapses on his knees. But before the brute could even do anything else, Brick slams booth of his palms at each side of the brute's ears before grabbing the brute's head and bringing his knee up the brute's chin. With that the fight is over as the hulking man falls backwards to the ground. As Brick turns back to see how things are doing, he is particularly surprised by the very pale but still standing Ms. Morningstar.
Suddenly Brick feels a significantly more powerful killing intent emanating from the other end of the corridor. He turns around to see a bat-masked man dressed in a long trench coat and loose fitting creased jeans and a tartan buttoned-up shirt, with just the top button buttoned is now looking at him with burning crimson eyes in an otherwise monochrome world.
"Ah shitbiscuits." Brick said his curse out loud. Murciélago is before him.
The masked men is now ablaze in a gray flame and several beam bolts fly out from his fingertips. Brick dodges them all with ease, but he knew that the tight confines of the building is not advantageous for him. He would need to do something about this annoying simpleton before he could send her to the only place he know that Lilith would be safe in. Brick proceed to move backwards to where the district attorney is, grabbing her by the waist and make a run for it.
"You alright?" Brick asked the district attorney, but he noticed that the district attorney is already unconscious. As the bat-masked man give chase, Brick would need to find an emergency stair exit to make sure that he gets the best chance to get out of the building. If the building is wrapped with an invisible force field, then the best way to get out from the building is to go down. Several more beams flew past Brick, and one of them burned a little bit of his ponytail. His eyes noticed the 'exit' sign and seeing that he needs to get out from the building fast, Brick immediately carries the woman in a bridal carry and kicks down the door with all his might,. The door was kicked so hard that it slammed and cracked the wall. Brick immediately jumps down the flight of stairs in the fastest way possible, and he could hear the gangster roared in a thick Hispanic accent.
"YOU ARE NOT ESCAPING WITH MY PREY MIERDA ROJA! GET THE PUTA!" The roar echoed throughout the staircase, and Brick could see the movement of several dozen individuals moving up in the staircase. Brick sighed, wondering why these people are still going up against him if all they are going to do against him is to fall unconscious against his 'intent'. Brick unleashes his 'intent' throughout the whole staircase, but Brick realized that something is wrong. Something is very wrong. These men are now rushing up the staircase and as they ran up the staircase, their clothes started to rip apart and revealing a red-hued mass of muscle with hyper-bulging veins and arteries. Brick sighed, knowing that this feels like a scene from those action movies he watched before. His 'intent' is not really working this time around, and he understood why; their mind had went down the deep end to the point where they do not feel anything else other than their rage. He looks up to see that the bat-masked man is now running down the stairs. Brick looks down again once more and sighs. It is better to take on the brutes than to take the bat-masked lunatic with laser fingers. Now his problem is a simple one; how the hell is he going to fight if he going to carry someone to escape.
"I'm just gonna wing it." Brick groans before he descends down the stairs.
As soon as Brick reaches the first level, the first Candyman lunges at Brick, but Brick slides Lilith on the flat area of the staircase under the brute, barely missing the flying behemoth. Brick rotates his body and slams into the temple of the lunging Candyman with his elbow, causing the brute to spin violently off the railings of the stairs and fall down on several of the Candymen. Within a split second, the second behemoth throws a punch at Brick, but Brick strikes both of the brute's kneecaps with a downward palm strike and a loud bone-shattering sound echoes throughout the staircase chamber. As he barely finishes his downward strike, he saw with the corner of his eye that there is an exit on the right side of the descending stair on his left. Brick grabs the slowing Lilith and throws her upwards in the air to the left before he turns to the left and lunges downwards towards his third opponent. Concentrating his power to his legs, Brick launchers himself and bringing his knees to the third Candyman's chest, launching the brute backwards. As the third opponent falls, Brick steps on his chest and launches himself further to grab the woman in mid-air.
With a kick to the wall, Brick grabs Lilith and bounces off the wall, fluidly extending one of his legs to strike another Candyman with a flying kick to the brute's chest. The brute falls down the stairs, further hindering the other Candyman while Brick is propelling himself towards the exit. Brick spins around and with his back facing towards the exit, he breaks through the door with the raven-haired woman in his protective embrace and rolled into the office corridor. As Brick rolled down on the ground, the other brutes are now entering through the broken-down door and rushed towards him.
As he rolled and regain his upright posture in a smooth transition, Brick fired an eyebeam at the brutes. One of the brutes was brought down by the beam and Brick carried the woman in his arm in a bridal carry. Brick is now running down the office corridor as fast as he could and as he sees an office door, Brick spins around and use his back as a battering ram once more. The impact broke the door and once again Brick is in a maze of office workstations and seeing that the stairs are infested with Candymen, he decided that he would be taking the shortcut.
With a concentrated blast from his eyes, he blasts through the floor and he jumps down into the hole he had made. As the teenager descends down the hole that he is making with his concentrated eye beams, his head is ablaze with thoughts on what to do next. He would need to do something about these annoying simpletons before he could send Lilith to the only place he know that is safe for the district attorney. If the bat-masked figure catches up, he would not be able to guarantee his guardian's safety. If this buildings start to collapse on him while he is blasting through the building, Lilith's life would be in danger. There is just too much to think about before Brick's senses noticed something coming at him as he is descending down the hole.
"RAAGGHHHHHH!" One of the Candymen was lunging at him just as he was passing through the hole and Brick knew that he did not have the time to dodge the behemoth.
Brick looked around to see what he could do given his situation and he saw what he could do in that fraction of a second. Brick's reflexes allowed him to slide the unconscious woman on one of the office chair and kicks her away before the red mountain of muscle tackled him. Brick and his hyper-muscled opponent crashed through the workstations, struggling to get the upper hand. As they are struggling on the floor, Brick saw the opportunity for a counterattack and decided to grab his opponent's head with both his hands. With chilling ruthlessness, Brick unflinchingly dig both of his thumbs into his opponent's eyes, blinding his opponent. The superpowered man is now screaming and rolled away from Brick, but Brick decided that he needs to neutralize him further. Brick focused all his power his foot and kicked the Candyman in the chest, and a loud booming sound accompanied by cracking sounds echoed throughout the office space. The behemoth was propelled through the window but instead of flying out the window the brute was bounced back towards Brick. With a spinning butterfly kick, Brick deflected the behemoth towards another wall and the Candyman was launched out of the office room. Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Brick looks at his bloodied arms and sigh once more.
"Great, my hands are dirty." Brick flicks the blood away from his arm before he realizes that his arms are still bloody. A hand passes him some tissues and Brick takes it nonchalantly and wipes his hands.
"Thank you." Brick said, not realizing the gravity of the situation as he finally throws the tissues to a trash bin.
"De nada, mierda roja." The voice answered back. Brick's monochrome eyes opened wide and as he turned towards the direction of the voice, a hand soon grabbed his head and slams him down on the floor. Before Brick could even get up, he was pummeled to the floor by the blows of the bat-masked man. Brick fires an eyebeam at the eyes of his opponent, but the bat-masked gangster dodges the attack before slamming Brick's body on the ground. As the two fighters struggled on the ground, Brick realized that he is slowly being overwhelmed as Murciélago climbs on his chest and started pummeling Brick with his fists and his elbows. Brick tried to throw a blow at the bat-faced man, but Brick saw a flash of red and felt a sudden searing pain in his hand and forearm. He tried another blow to his opponent's kidney with his other arm but he saw the same flash and felt the same overbearing pain coursing through his arm. The office room is soon filled with the smell of charred flesh, and Brick realized that both his hands are burned. Burned by the beams of the man above him.
"Oh no gringo. You will not touch me with those hands of yours." The bat points his fingers at the shoulder of the Rowdyruff Boy before firing his beam at point-blank range. The beam pierced through the boy's body and the cried out in pain, knowing that his left hand is now essentially useless.
"You b-bastard..." Brick mustered his will to lift his damaged arms to try and hit the man but Brick's hands are shot by the beams from Murciélago's fingers before the pummeling continue on. Brick fires a few of his eyebeams, but they too were swatted away by the being before the gangster punches Brick straight in the eye. As he continued his frenzied onslaught on the Rowdyruff Boy, Brick's retaliation becomes weaker due to his damaged arms as the fiend fired upon every part of the Rowdyruff Boy's arm, and also the opponent's dominant position above him allowed the fiend to slam his whole weight onto Brick's head. Brick's vision is now becoming a big blur as the pain and shock of his wounds are now finally taking its toll on him. His arms moved involuntarily and with a final surge of strength, Brick immediately grabs on both of Murciélago's arms with his charred arms. Suddenly his vision turned black
Is this how it feels like to die? This utterly sucks ,Brick said in his mind.
For some reason, instead of worrying about his own survival, his mind is drifting into the image of him having a nice picnic under the tree in Townsville High with Bubbles. His mind is utterly calm and tranquil at this last imagery in his head, despite it being an odd thing to think about now. He can feel the nice cool breeze touching his skin like the caresses of silk, and the smell of a Quiche Lorraine is piercing through his nose. As the image of the pig-tailed blonde teenage girl with the white frilly dress looks at him with a calm and gentle light blue eyes, Brick thought that his only regret is that he did not even tried to thank her for making some things bearable for him.
Well, time for me to take over, Brick's mental image was interrupted by a voice that sounds similar to his own, and Brick is now looking around to find the source of the voice. Suddenly a dark silhouette appeared before Brick, and Brick recognized it as his own silhouette. However something is definitely wrong with this figure, for its sinister presence is overwhelming. The only thing that is visible from this silhouette are two glowing red eyes. Before Brick could even asked the silhoutte, Bricks's vision immediately blacks out.
Suddenly, the monochrome room had turned into shades of bloody crimson, taking the bat-masked man by surprise. The atmosphere around the whole office room becomes more burdensome and heavy, and the Lunatic is feeling goosebumps all over his body. Immediately the man points his fingers at Brick's face, causing the long-haired teenager to let go of his arms. The Hispanic gangster used the opportunity and jumped away from the teenager's body.
The Lunatic watched as the carnelian-haired teenager rose up, knowing that the tide of battle had turned. As the young teenager takes away his red coat the cloth wrappings of his ponytail unravels and his fiery-orange hair is now levitating freely. With the exception of the burning crimson irises, the rest of the orange-haired teenager's eyes are as dark as the darkest night. His body is now engulfed in a dark red swirling flaming vortex, giving Brick the visage of a raging demon. As the teenager smiled at Murciélago with crazed eyes, the gangster can only see a gaping hole where teeth and gums should be as Brick grin from ear to ear. The sinister smile radiate with a darkness that cast a shadow on darkness itself. As Brick's pupils turn into reptilian slits, the teenager is now walking towards the bat like a man possessed. With every step, the oppressive atmosphere of the room just becomes heavier and heavier. Suddenly the room's temperature drops, causing Murciélago's breath to become vapor. Brick on the other hand is not breathing any vapor, and his stare is now as cold as ice.
"Time for me to take over." Brick's voice is not like his normal self, for it is a distorted voice being repeated by an reverberating echo that is slightly out of sync. The third person perspective of the speech is utterly spine-chilling for the bat-masked Hispanic gangster. As Brick shows his arm, his hands are slowly healing. The flesh of his charred arm started to reform strand by strand, covering his revealed tendons and muscle with fresh new flesh once more. The arm slowly glowed with a near-black glowing crimson,from beneath the skin. Several more beam bolts streams out from the bat-masked gangster's fingertips, and Brick slaps them all away with his blackened hands. The bat-masked man's eyes are wide open, shocked that his weapons are suddenly ineffective against the teenager.
Several of the brutes finally entered into the floor where the bat-masked villain and the teenage Rowdyruff Boy. Seeing their target, they immediately charged towards the dark figure in the center of the office cubicles, with some of them even breaking through the walls in their bloodlust. Brick steps on the foot of the first Candyman that reaches him and with a fluid motion, Brick kneels down and slams his palm at the side of the Candyman's knee. To the shock of the bat-masked gangster, the leg of the Candyman was torn apart by the blow, causing the Candyman to lose balance and skid and rams into the cubicles in a trail of blood.
Another brute charges towards him but Brick fluidly counters the behemoth by slamming his shoulders towards the charging Candyman's chest. With a resounding crack and explosion, the Candyman launches into the air and brought down several more Candymen.
Another Candyman tries to pound the teenager with both his clenched fists, but the the long-haired teenager grabs the fists and breaks the man's elbows by launching his knees towards the joints. The force of the blow is such that the flesh and skin around the elbow joint are shredded and the bones of the Candyman are now jutting out from the broken section of the arm. As the arm becomes flaccid, Brick uses the opportunity of the lost of support of the broken arms to slam the ball of his feet into the the thighs of the broken-arm Candyman. The leg of the brute broke and the strands of muscle and the bones of the monstrous Candyman are now visible. Brick swings the disabled fighter towards the other Candyman with such force that the other Candymen trying to stop the projectile suffered broken limbs before being launched along with the paraplegic Candymen.
Brick dodges an attacks from a Candyman throwing a straight punch and Brick's arm coils around the straight arm like a slithering serpent. With a strong snap,Brick straighten his arm and breaks the enemy's arms in several places, causing the bones to jut out from the flesh of the behemoth. Brick rotates clockwise with all his might and further dislocating the ball joint of the arm and cracking the shoulder blade of the Candyman. With a fluid motion, he throws the Candyman at the other brutes, causing further chaos and pandemonium among the ranks of the Candymen. Due to his small mass, Brick is able to slip through the gaps between the large Candymen and Brick clothesline a shin of one of the Candyman coming at him. Breaking the shin like a twig, the behemoth fell down with a thundering fall before Brick grabs the Candyman and make a sweeping attack with the brute against the Candyman's allies. As the bat-masked man watched, the candymen's limbs are being broken and dislocated as Brick spins around in a fluid motion of destruction.
It was then that the Hispanic gangster realized something is very, very wrong.
The Candymen's mass are growing smaller and smaller the more oppressive and depressing the atmosphere of the room is, and the glow of the room grows brighter and brighter the more carnage is brought about to his men. Murciélago also realized that his powers are also seeping away from his body. Seeing that he is running out of time, Murciélago decides to find the woman and do what he is here to do. Suddenly the bat-masked crook is face to face with two fiery demonic eyes, and the Lunatic is forced to step back. The gangster soon realize that all his men are down on the floor, bleeding and their limbs broken.
"So you're the one that let me loose." Brick, or to be exact, the entity within Brick asked. The veins around Brick's face are now turning black and the hair of the teenager is now glowing red. The Lunatic looks at the Rowdyruff Boy, and his hands could not help but to tremble before the infernal majesty of the entity before him.
"What the hell are you, bruja?" Murciélago asked, his voice being the only thing in his body that is not semblance of warmth in the room had all disappeared, and the glowing red light in the whole room now gives off eerie similarities to the fiery pits of hell. Murciélago realized that the 'Red Candy' power within him is all gone from his body, and it was then that the unbearable atmosphere of the room crashes on the crook. Murciélago realized that the superpowered teenager can and will be able to take his life if he so wishes. The 'Bat' will not beg for his life, for it is the Los Noches way, but he is not willing to go down pathetically either.
"Tsk...?" 'Brick' said, annoyed about something. Suddenly 'Brick' walks away from the bat-masked crook. Taking offense that 'Brick' spared him, the man shouts at the red-haired teenager.
"What the hell! Come back and finish the job!" The man cursed, before a sudden glare from the teenage boy made the man lose all strength in his legs and drenching him in cold sweat. Suddenly the throat of the Hispanic gangster are now within the grasp of the teenager's hand as he was lifted up.
"You asked for it." 'Brick' threatened the gangster, and immediately the red ambiance of the room suddenly disappears, leaving the room shrouded in total darkness, the only source of illumination within the room are the glowing red eyes of the carnelian-eyed teenager. As the grip grows even tighter, suddenly several pink glowing fire hits the arm of the Rowdyruff Boy and he was forced to let go. The distraction was long enough for the masked man to retreat by running towards the glass panel windows and breaking through it, leaping down to safety. 'Brick' walks towards the edge of the window and saw a reddish-pink fog dissipating in mid-air.
Seeing that the threat is now gone, the flesh of the cinnabar-eyed teenager slowly peels away showing the charred flesh and exposed tendons of the teenager once more. The wounds of the Rowdyruff Boy is now returning, with the flow of blood now returning to the open wounds. As "brick' walks back towards the center of the room, his appearance slowly returned to normal. 'Brick' looks around and it smiled devilishly, relishing the carnage he had unleashed on these opponents. The glowing red eyes of the teenager spots the unconscious district attorney and he pats himself on the shoulder.
"Well, time's up." Suddenly the glow in the long-haired teenager fades away, and the teenager immediately collapsed, falling into the pool of blood caused by the carnage of battle.