Hi Guys and Welcome back to the final chapter of Blizzard! That's right, this is the last chapter of this very long-lasting story! I want to say a massive thank you for everyone who stuck with me throughout all of this! But more of that after, so let's crack on with this for the final time, shall we?
As Kendall approached the building where the Diamond apartment was located, he heard the very distinctive sound of a shot going off, as well as a window shattering around the other side of the building. Picking up his pace, Kendall skated towards the sound, where he saw the shattered window, as well as Carlos slumped against a wall, holding his arm which looked to be pouring blood. The blond was quick to slide into the window, before running up to the police officer and crouching down in front of him.
"Are you ok? I heard a gunshot" Kendall asked, causing Carlos to nod as he pushed himself up the wall.
"I'm fine, but I was right, Mr Diamond has already transformed." Carlos began, pulling his hand away from his arm, revealing scratch marks. "When I walked in here, he leapt at me from the ceiling. Thankfully, I was able to get a shot off before he properly got me and then he scurried out of the window to the roof"
"Did the bullet hit him?" Kendall asked, causing Carlos to shrug ever so slightly, looking at his wound once again.
"I'm not sure, it all happened so fast. It either hit him, and that's why he ran, or the noise was enough to scare him off. Still, you should get up to the room and end this as quickly as possible"
"What about you? Are you going to be ok?" Kendall asked, causing Carlos to nod, adjusting his gun in his holster.
"I'll be fine. Now, you better get up to the roof and fast before Mr Diamond hurts anyone else"
"Alright, stay safe" Kendall replied, before turning back towards the window.
This had to end now.
Before anyone else got hurt.
As Kendall landed on the roof of the apartment block, he took a cautious glance around to see if he could find anything. However, the whole place looked completely devoid of life, with the only sound being the whirring from air conditioning units as well as the traffic noise from below. Knowing he was probably going to regret it in a few seconds, Kendall called out.
"Mr Diamond?" Kendall called out, slowly taking a step forward as he went to investigate where Mr Diamond was. "I'm here to help" Kendall continued to talk as he walked slowly, keeping an eye out of any sign of movement, except he saw and heard nothing.
He was starting to feel unsettled.
The whole situation was unsettling to him because he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched, despite the fact that nothing told him he was. Taking one more step towards, Kendall peered his head around one of the larger air conditioning units only to find nothing, like the rest of his search, has entailed.
However, in a split-second decision, based on gut instinct alone, Kendall found himself diving to his right, hitting the floor pretty hard.
Still, the decision seemed to be the right one as quickly after he hit the floor, he heard the sound of metal being scratched as well as the sound of a pipe bursting letting out coolant. As Kendall pushed himself to his feet that's when he got the first glance of Mr Diamond, which was only a pair of dark eyes glaring at him through the white fog before they disappeared once again.
Kendall couldn't help the fear that came over him, the blond having to swallow a very large lump that had formed in his throat, but he knew that the only way this was going to get better was if it got worse first.
Prepping himself properly for a fight now, Kendall tried to focus his ears onto any sign that Mr Diamond was moving around, but the hissing coming from the depressurizing gas in the air conditioning unit made it very difficult. It was only made worse when Kendall felt something swipe at his legs, causing him to drop to the floor face first.
Rolling over, Kendall was faced with what could probably be described as the most terrifying sight he'd ever seen.
"Come on, pick up!" James said to himself as he called Carlos for the third time since he'd gotten into the taxi. Still, as the phone rung, there was no sign of answer, only increasing James' anxiety about the whole situation.
There had been no updates from anyone since had left, and while that was only about 10 minutes prior, James couldn't help the nerves that were building in his chest. That all changed however when a notification came up on James' phone and as soon as he saw the word Blizzard, he clicked on it, not even bothering to read the full title.
The notification took him to the Dispatch Weekly helicopter that seemed to be circling the roof of the apartment and James' eyes caught sight of Kendall before then catching a quick glimpse of something that looked far more awful.
James couldn't help the gasp that escapes his mouth as is phone fell to his lap, the brunet dropping out of shock.
Kendall couldn't believe the sight that was before his eyes. Mr Diamond, or something that probably once resembled him, towered over the blond, roughly 7 foot in height all of which seemed to be pure muscle. The claws that extruded from what looked like paws were sharp and strong enough to cut through metal which Kendall had learnt for himself only moments ago, and a long tail swept behind the towering giant, seemingly with a mind of its own. Still, Kendall knew that was responsible for bringing him down to the floor, so he knew not to underestimate its power.
"So, you're this fabled hero that the city seemed enamoured with" Mr Diamond leered, but Kendall couldn't focus on the tone of his voice but rather the fact that he had one.
"You can talk?" Kendall questioned, his voice shaking slightly as he asked causing a smug grin to grow on Mr Diamond's mouse-like face.
"Of course I can talk! I'm a hyper-intelligent being, of course, I'm capable of speech." Mr Diamond began before his comments directed at Kendall began to turn into incessant rambling. "Speech? Of course, I'm capable of speech. I can talk. Talk talk talk, see, I'm talking" Mr Diamond said, his blackened eyes trailing from Kendall to the ground next to him.
Seeing this as a chance to get up off the floor, Kendall tried to discreetly move, but it didn't go missed from Mr Diamond, who went from incessant rambling to almost a foot away from the blond as he growled in his face.
"I didn't say you could leave" Mr Diamond sneered, his claws now bowing over Kendall's arms to keep his place as a small bit of saliva dropped onto Kendall's cheek.
"Mr Diamond, please! Something went wrong with Dr Burrens experiment and you need to let us help you!" Kendall insisted, trying his best not to move which he felt would only make the situation worst.
"Wrong? Nothing is wrong! I feel stronger, I feel powerful, more powerful then I have in years!" Mr Diamond leered, before rambling to himself a bit more, almost like a switch kept flipping. "Yes, strong. Powerful! I feel so good, so powerful, so strong!"
"You need to let us help you! Please, think of your son!" Kendall tried once again, this time hoping that the mention of James would help. Instead, it turned Mr Diamond's attention back to Kendall, with the 7-foot creature now putting more pressure on Kendall's arms, the claws beginning to draw blood.
"I don't need help! What I need to be, is rid of you Blizzard! Ever since you showed up in this city, I've been targeted, my business has been targeted and it's all because of the supervillains that you've brought with you. With you gone, they'll be gone as well" Mr Diamond stated, the switch flipping once again as he began to talk to himself. "That's right. Get rid of Blizzard, and the villains should leave. I'll get my security back and my business will be safe. Yes, this is Blizzard's fault, all Blizzard's fault. His fault, his fault! The only choice I have is to kill him!"
To say Kendall felt uncomfortable was an understatement and that wasn't just because of the claws digging into his arms. Mr Diamond was talking about him almost like he wasn't even there and yet they were both very aware of each other's presences. Kendall's internal monologue seemed to stop however when Mr Diamond's beady blackened eyes turned their attention back to the blond. Kendall could see his own reflection in them, which only seemed to make the panic he was suffering worse.
"Don't worry, I'll make this quick" Mr Diamond leered, before removing his claw from Kendall's left arm.
The blond knew exactly what was going to happen, so was quick to react. Just as Mr Diamond's right claw began to swing towards him, Kendall shot ice into his eyes. The mouse-man hybrid panicked, quickly withdrawing from Kendall's body as he tried to remove the layer of ice and Kendall used this to his full advantage, pushing himself up from the floor before creating some distance between the two of them, a standoff now occurring.
"You couldn't have let this be easy could you!" Mr Diamond scorned as he stood to his full height, rolling his shoulder back as a show of force.
"Mr Diamond please, I'm going to ask you one last time! Stand down and let me help you" Kendall shouted, but when all he received in response was a growl, Kendall knew that wasn't going to be the case.
James jumped out of the taxi before it had even come to a complete stop outside the building and was quick to rip away a portion of the police tape that had cornered off the entrance. "Sir, you can't go in there!" He heard a police officer shout at him, but he ignored it as he sprinted towards the lift.
Thankfully, it was on the bottom floor when he reached it, so he was quick to slam on the button to take him to the top floor, completely disregarding the two officers that we're telling him to step out. By the time they'd reached the lift, the door was already closed and James' journey to the top floor began. The whole time, he panicked about what was going on with Kendall and his father. The last he'd seen from the news was Kendall getting himself free, but James' knew that things were only going to get worse from there.
When the lift doors opened, however, that all ceased to exist, with James catching a glimpse of Bitters being loaded onto a gurney.
"Bitters?" James asked as he approached the unconscious man, with an oxygen mask over his nose and face as well as medical gauze over his chest, completely soaked in blood.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to step away," One EMT said to him but their voice seemed to blur into the distance as James continued to look at Bitters and the damage caused to him. The thought that his dad wasn't capable of this crossed his mind, but the evidence to the contrary was very much present. Alongside Bitters being badly injured, James could see that his father's office was completely ruined. "Sir, you need to step aside!" The EMT asked again, this time James feeling his legs move yet not remembering commanding them to do so.
It all became clear when Carlos got into his eye line and he felt his back pressed against a wall. Glancing down, James saw Carlos' arm on his before the chief of police dropped it.
"What are you doing here? Do you have the cure?" Carlos said quietly so that no one around them would hear.
"What? No, I came to help" James replied, as everything began to focus back in once again, the first thing him noticing being the bandage on Carlos' arm. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine it's just a scratch" Carlos replied, causing James to raise his eyebrow slightly. "Look, if you really want to help, then get on the phone to Logan and ask him how the cure is coming along. Without that, there's nothing we can do but hope that Kendall's long enough for one to be synthesised" Carlos stated, before turning around to see Bitters on the gurney. "Alright everyone, this area is now off-limits. Once the EMT's are gone, I expect you all to evacuate to the first floor" Carlos shouted, directing his attention to the few officers on the floor with him.
With that, James pulled his phone from his pocket and began to dial Logan's number. The doctor picked up after a couple of rings and James didn't wait to start talking.
"How are you getting on? Is it done yet?" James asked immediately, but thankfully, Logan seemed to have the same urgency as he did.
"We're just about to synthesise a couple of doses of the cure now, so it's going to take about 5 minutes to fully complete" Logan replied, causing James to nod as he glanced up at Carlos, who was motioning for him to get into the lift.
"Alright. 5 minutes, we'll be there" James stated before cutting off the phone and joining Carlos.
"5 minutes until they're done?" Carlos asked as the lift door closed, causing James to nod. "Then we better get a move on"
As soon as the lift arrived at the ground floor, James and Carlos sprinted towards Carlos' patrol car. In and secured, Carlos blared the siren as the blue and red lights began to flash. There was no time to waste. The thought that Kendall was right, and that he should have just stayed at the university crossed James' mind, but the brunet pushed it to the back of his mind.
Right now, all he needed to be focused on was getting the cure and stopping everything with his dad.
Mr Diamond lunged for Kendall almost immediately after he'd growled and while the blond was expecting it, he hadn't expected Mr Diamond to move so fast. Kendall barely had enough time to dodge out of the way and as he recovered, he knew that he needed to try and level the playing field slightly.
The blond froze the floor, blasting it with a continuous stream of ice until the entire surface of the roof was covered, the whole time hoping that it would cause Mr Diamond to lose his balance.
After all, as much as Kendall knew a fight was necessary, he didn't want to explicitly injure the man. He was still James' dad under everything, and it could be said that this wasn't completely his fault.
Still, Kendall was knocked from his thoughts as Mr Diamond lunged at him for a second time, the blond narrowly missing this one once again. As Mr Diamond lanced, he slid across the ice for a few seconds before he gripped his claws into it, stopping his completely.
"You think you're so smart, freezing the floor like this, but this won't slow me down. I'm still going to kill you" Mr Diamond leered, now scratching claw marks into the ice as he crawled across it. Mr Diamond lunged once more at Kendall, and the blond couldn't help but get slightly cocky, already dodging the two before this.
What Kendall had missed, however, was Mr Diamond's tail, which now swept under him as Kendall focused on the main body of the mouse-man hybrid. Kendall plummeted onto his back and before he even had a chance to get back up, Mr Diamond grabbed his leg and flung him into the side of an electrical generator.
The impact from Kendall was enough to crease the metal, before Kendall dropped to the floor, pain radiating through his back. Still, Kendall knew that he couldn't give up now.
Pushing himself up from the floor, Kendall decided to go on the offensive, hoping to wound Mr Diamond, enough to stop him from attacking. With that, Kendall began to form and fling ice shards at him, hoping that they'd catch Mr Diamond in the arm or the leg and stop him from moving.
Instead, the villain used his sharp claws to cut the shards in half as they approached him, before lunging at the blond once again.
This time, Kendall created a shield, not having enough time to dodge out of the way, causing Mr Diamond's claws to lodge themselves in the object. The two of them were essentially face to face once again, with Kendall's ice shield being the only barrier between them.
"See, your pathetic powers can't stop me" Mr Diamond sneered, before using his lodged claws to rip the shield away from Kendall, throwing it over to the other side of the roof, and with Kendall distracted with that, he missed Mr Diamond's other set of claws coming up and stabbing themselves through his left shoulder.
Kendall couldn't help but let out a scream in pain, as Mr Diamond used them to raise Kendall into the air, bringing the two of them face to face. Kendall struggled the whole time, trying to use his other hand to do something but Mr Diamond was quick to grab that and restrict it, leaving only his legs which in this situation, we're pretty useless.
"You're nothing" Mr Diamond continued, now using his leverage to throw Kendall across to the other side of the roof, the blond now sliding on the ice he once thought could help him. The blond tried his best to push himself up, but before any progress was made, Mr Diamond had pounced on him once again, pinning him down with his claws and keeping him in place. "And now, before I kill you, I'm going to find out who you really are" Mr Diamond began, moving one of his hands away to reach for Kendall's mask.
This time, the villain didn't make the same mistake, moving a leg up to keep Kendall's arm secured and useless. As Mr Diamond began to slowly pull of Kendall's mask, the blond struggled and squirmed in some hopes that it would help but nothing seemed to be worked.
The bottom of the mask had now reached the bottom of Kendall's eyes and the blond knew that he couldn't do anything about it now. The whirring above him told him that a news helicopter was circling overhead, capturing the whole thing live so this was truly the end of his secret.
The blond grimaced, waiting for it all to be over, but when he heard a familiar voice, hope burst in his chest.
"Dad!" James' voice called out from over the rooftop, causing Mr Diamond to turn his attention away from the blond and towards his son. "Dad, why are you doing this? This isn't you" James continued, as he slowly began to approach his father, one hand firmly securing the cure behind him back while the other emoted with him. "You don't need to do this"
"But I do! Blizzard is the cause of everything! He's the reason that the supervillains are here in the first place!" Mr Diamond replied, keeping the pressure on Kendall so that he couldn't move.
"That's not true, Dad! Blizzard is the reason that you haven't lost everything. Without him, Inferno would have destroyed everything of yours and he would have killed me" James replied, now only a few metres away from his father. "Please, Dad. You don't have to do this." James said, crossing the distance so that he was right next to his father. "And please forgive me for this" James added, before revealing his hidden arm and stabbing Mr Diamond with the needle in it. Except nothing happened. Nothing except Mr Diamond rising to his full height in front of James, successful intimidating the brunet.
"Even my own son would turn on me to protect this filth" Mr Diamond stated, letting out a low growl as James slowly began to take a step back. "See, this is his doing. And once I've dealt with him, I'm going to have to deal with you"
Swallowing the lump in his throat, James watched as Mr Diamond turned his full attention back towards Kendall, sneering at the blond as he raised a claw into the air.
However, just as Mr Diamond was about to bring his claws down, the mouse-man hybrid screamed and began to thrash about, his claws catching James across the top of his arm before his tail swept James' feet out from under him. Suddenly the brunet was on the floor, watching as his father squirmed and thrashed about in pain.
Kendall was free once again and was quick to move over to James, trying to protect him as much as possible while Mr Diamond screeched and writhed in agony. Within seconds, however, the whole rooftop went silent, the agonised screams stopping, causing both Kendall and James to finally glance over at where the noises had last come from.
There laid Mr Diamond, back in human form and curled up into a ball, but all too quickly where they then surrounded by EMT's, who rushed in to take care of the once hybrid villain.
"Are you ok?" Kendall asked, finally finding his voice after a chaotic couple of seconds.
"I'm fine, it's just a scratch. What about you?" James replied, looking on the holes in Kendall's shoulder.
"I'll be fine. They'll heal" Kendall replied, the two of them now getting to their feet. As they did so, they saw Carlos and Logan rushing up to them.
"Are you two ok?" Logan asked, causing them both to nod.
"We're good. What about you?" Kendall asked, causing Logan and Carlos to let out a sigh.
"I'm just glad the cure worked" Logan stated, looking over to where Mr Diamond was situated. The EMT's were running all sorts of tests to make sure he was ok. "There was a second there when I thought it wasn't going to work" Logan continued, causing both James and Kendall to nod as they let out a sigh.
Looking out onto the city, James felt like this was the first time he could relax in what felt like ages.
Still, there was that small part of his brain that knew this story wasn't over.
Not just yet.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kendall asked as he and James sat in a hospital waiting room a few hours after the battle on the rooftop. As expected, Mr Diamond had been rushed into hospital, where all sorts of tests and procedures were run on him to make sure he was ok.
The cure Logan had given him had been described as crude, but effective, something the doctor didn't take too very well, and the doctors had promised James that they'd do whatever they could to try and combat this properly before asking him to wait in the waiting room while they finished up.
Carlos and Logan had offered to stay with him, but James knew how busy the two of them must have been, especially Carlos with everything that had just happened. Instead, just he and Kendall waited until James could properly see his dad, something that Kendall was asking him if he wanted to do.
"I have to do this Kendall. With everything that happened and with what he said at the end of the tape about keeping me in the dark so that I don't suffer more and then lying about his diagnosis, I need to know why" James replied, causing Kendall to nod as he squeezed the brunet's hand.
"Alright. You know that I'm here if you need me right. Whatever you want" Kendall responded, causing James to smile softly at him before leaning his head onto Kendall's shoulder.
"I know, and I love you for that" James stated, before letting out a sigh. "But I think I need to do this alone" James continued, causing Kendall to nod, turning his head to place a kiss onto James' forehead. "Mr Diamond, you can see him now," A nurse said, causing James to slowly push himself up from the chair.
"I'm here if you need me," Kendall said once again, causing James to return the kiss on his forehead before heading down the corridor. The walk to the room definitely seemed like a daunting one, but James was comforted by the fact that Kendall was only a few metres away and ready to do anything for him.
As James arrived at the room, he let out a sigh before walking into it, trying his best to keep the already forming tears at bay. The sight that greeted him was his father laid in a hospital bed, completely human, and hooked up to a bunch of wires and an IV drip, and James didn't know whether to be relieved or horrified.
While his father was back in human form, something James was definitely relieved about, this was the experience that James had worried about the most, his father hospitalised. The brunet was quick to wipe the tears from his eyes as he approached the bed, sitting in the seat right next to it.
"Dad, it's me, James," the brunet said, feeling the need to grab his father's hand.
"James?" Henry croaked from the bed, startling the brunet slightly. His tone was so fragile, so frail that James felt like it was going to break at any second. "I wasn't expecting you to come" Mr Diamond continued, causing more tears to drop from James' eyes. "I've done some terrible things and I've been so horrible to you after the last few years. I'm so sorry" Mr Diamond finished, tears drop crawling down his cheek.
"Why Dad? Why were you so horrible to me? All I wanted was for you to be ok, and I felt like you were shutting me out every chance you had. Why?" James asked, his own tears now flowing freely as he struggled to get the words it. It only got worse when Henry's hands tightened around his own.
"I saw how you were after the death of your mother; you were distraught, and it sent you into a really bad place. I didn't want to do that to you again. I thought if I could distance myself from you now, then when I passed, it wouldn't have been so difficult for you and that you wouldn't have had to go through that pain again" Henry explained, causing more tears to fall from both their eyes. "I wanted to save you from the pain again. I love you, James, so much and I'd do anything to spare you from going through that again" Henry finished, squeezing James' hand once more as they both sobbed.
James' brain had stopped processing completely at what his father said, with him not being to piece together everything. A couple of minutes must have gone by with James not saying anything, as Henry spoke up again.
"James, please talk to me" Henry pleaded, and James could hear the fear in his voice. Finally, finding the right words, James let out a sigh before speaking.
"That's probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard," James said first, wiping the tears from his eyes before he continued to speak. "I love you dad, and whatever you say, or whatever you do, I'm still going to be grief-stricken when you die. You could have come to be about this, and spoken to me about everything. At least that way, I could have tried to prepare myself for it. But whatever happens, I'm always going to love you. You're my father" James finished, causing Henry's grip on him to tighten.
"Your father needs some rest now," A nurse said from the door, causing James to look over at her in shock. He hadn't even noticed her arrived, but the sad look she held on her face told him that she'd heard at least a bit of their conversation.
"I'm going to come back tomorrow to check on you, as soon as I'm allowed to. Ok?" James stated, causing Henry to nod from the bed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"I love you," Henry said, causing James to smile as he squeezed Henry's hand once more before letting go.
"I love you too dad"
"So, how it go?" Kendall asked as James approached him in the waiting room.
Without saying anything, James wrapped his arms around the blond, pulling him into a massive hug.
"I love you so much," James said, causing Kendall to let out a soft chuckle as he returned the hug with as much vigour as James.
"I love you too" Kendall responded, causing James to feel the most at peace he'd felt in a while.
Everything was slowly starting to look up despite all the crazy stuff that had gone on, but a small part of James knew that he probably should expect that in his life from now on. Dating a superhero was certainly going to add some crazy to anyone's life and yet James couldn't be more content with that.
In Kendall, James had found the one and he knew together, they could face anything.
So there we have it! The final chapter! Kendall fought Mr Diamond as expected and we finally got some sort of reason as to why James' dad had been a dick all this time! I hope you all enjoyed not only this chapter but the whole story as it's certainly been a long and eventful journey!
I want to say a massive thank you to RainbowDiamonds, Winterschild11, Guest and EpicallyObsessed for not only reviewing the last chapter but every one of them! Your constant support and kind words always mean so much to me! You all seemed to appreciate Jealous Kendall, which I thought was pretty funny and you all seemed to agree that James just needed to stay put and follow orders! I thought it would be a little cliche to have him turn up and get injured, so I went for something a little bit different! Aka, him just having to turn around and go back!
So, as of next week, Colony will be continuing, which was the Westworld-esque story! I'm also going to say now that that story will only probably be short, about 10-15 ish chapters so I hope you stick around and give it a read!
I hope that you're all staying safe and feeling alright amongst everything that is going on, and I will see you next Monday! But until then, and for the final time in this story,
TTFN 😀❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄❄
