Chapter 116: Body And Soul

[Brick's Mindscape, Time Unknown]

A geyser of blood erupted from their bodies, yet both It and Brick stood firm. Both individuals turned around and they both saw the damage that they had done upon one another. Still, that mattered little to both of them. This will go on until one of them is no longer standing. Brick prepared his blade once more, mustering all his willpower to prepare for his next attack. However, willpower can only do so much when the body is unwilling to move and Brick felt the limitations of his body weighing him down.

"Shit... I messed up."Brick uttered as he collapsed on his knees. Brick saw as one of It's arm fell limply by its side, and a large slash running down from its shoulder down to its torso.

Brick's legs swayed for a moment, but Brick stabbed the ground with his weapon and use it as support. Brick is not one to be so easily taken off-guard by such an action from his opponent, and he had experienced many sneak attacks from such positions before. Brick did not move closer to the dark being, or to be exact, he is unable to move closer to deliver the 'double-tap'. Brick watched as It dragged its feet closer to the Rowdyruff Boy and the flowing black ichor trailing beneath the demon's body.

"You're more of a monster than I am, Brick. But it mattered little, for you are going to die." It chuckled, and more ichor flowed from where a mouth would be on a human's face. Brick wanted to say something to the demon, but he is far too weak to do anything and Brick wondered how he will be able to fight back.

"Now that is out of the way..." The voice attracted the attention of the shadow-shrouded demon and the Rowdyruff Boy. Brick turned around to see a dark being with red eyes and long crimson red hair stood behind Brick, looking down upon the Rowdyruff Boy. Brick's doppelganger ripped the bladed weapon from Brick's grip before turning its attention towards the other figure kneeling down amidst the grassland in the mindscape.

"Break..." Brick weakly spoke out.

"Wh-what is this..." The dark being with the wide-brimmed hat is surprised by the presence of another being in the mindscape.

"So you are the demon that invaded my home." Break pointed out as it spun the blade in its hands.

"Many of us...had been...looking for you..." The demon pointed its finger at Break. The being spoke, its voice gargled with black ichor as it pointed its finger at Break.

"Everyone does." Break shrugged.

Brick watched as his doppelganger closes in on the monster nonchalantly, casually spinning the wicked-looking blade. However, there is something wrong about the conversation. Brick sensed that both these figures are familiar with each other to a certain extent, but at the same time it appeared that they knew about each other for the first time. Break chuckled as he reached the dark demon being and pointed the weapon at its chest.

"That devious bastard..." The coarse voice of the injured demon appeared elated despite its injuries.

"So...you're It." Break pressed the tip of the blade at the demon's chest. Break playfully winked only for Break to slice the demon's finger off before mutilating the rest of the arm.

Break worked his way from the butchered arm to the being's knees, and causing the being to drop down to its knees. The dark being's chuckled, before its chuckle turned into laughter, surprising the doppelganger. Nothing alive will ever laugh as its body is mangled up, but this demon before him is something else entirely. Break paused, allowing the wounded demon to speak for itself one last time. The being continued on laughing, and it choked on its own blood a few times before continuing on in a harsh guttural laughter.

"The truth always escapes." It broke out in a hysterical laughter, before a flower-like appendage composed of a grotesque mass of teeth and hand-like shadows burst out from the large wound on It's body. The outburst of hands slammed onto Break's body and the doppelganger crashed into the red fields, ploughing the fields apart.

Brick watched as the column of hands started to branch away, with shrunken, ravenous rat heads blooming out from the palms of each hands. It's body lifts up and the rest of its body started to warp itself into a mountain of misshapen flesh that moves in a rippling tide of unnatural of the heads bursting and blooming out from the body. The abomination is vermin-like, but some of the heads glisten hairlessly like newborn hairless rats. Many have eyes, and some had too much eyes, but no few are blind, twisting and craning to catch the scent of prey, hissing and snapping at the air with serrated incisors. A multitude of hears darts out from the lumpen mound of dark matter,writhing worm-like and using its many limbs to pull and drag its hideous bulk. With a horrifying slither and shamble, the creature propels itself across the battlefield, rearing up to a towering height before it pounce upon Break like a thunderbolt. Vast boulder-sized fists swung down and pummeled the doppelganger, while hungry jaws snap angrily.

A deafening snarl growled and reverberated across the entire mindscape, before something erupted from beneath the abomination. A hound-like head clamped on one of the large arms, followed by another head biting on the shoulders of the rat-like abomination. A third hound-like head slashed at the monstrous rat-like titan with the bone-like glaive-sword, causing the rat-monster to slam several large backfists towards the head. The two monsters separate from each other, and distanced themselves from each other.

"Break?" Brick called out, and for once in his life he felt an indescribable fear coursing through his veins knowing well what is at stake; his existence.


[Townsville Park, Downtown Townsville, 10.03pm]

Butch was blown back by the blast from the blade stabbing into the structure, and Butch slammed into the jagged surface of the volcanic mountain. For a moment, Butch's mind blanked out but he managed to regain his consciousness. Butch landed down on the ground face first, and Butch immediately felt another concussion, and once again he is only conscious by his sheer constitution. Butch placed his hands below his body and lifted himself up before tucking his legs beneath him and erecting his body upwards.

Butch is immediately greeted by a very gory sight, for countless rats littered the park, and the stench of blood and dead rats permeate the air. The scorched ground around Brick is still burning with a orange-red amber, the only area not being scorched are the immediately foot-wide radius around his brother. Butch immediately willed his legs to move and he dragged his feet towards his brother.

Butch stopped a feet from the kneeling Brick, and his brother's Brick's wheezing breath alerting him to his brother's dire situation. Butch is amazed that Brick is still breathing, with a sharp object piercing his stomach. Yet, Brick's tenacity knows no bounds and Butch understood his brother's nature from the way he is still gripping tightly on the bone-like weapon in his right hand. Butch felt a little weak, but he will need to get his brother the medical attention he needs. Butch looked up to see a milk-white being with nine fox-like tails standing before him. The female's cold icy eyes stared coldly at the two teenagers, and Butch knew that whatever it is that he is looking at can be a distorted illusion formed by her abilities.

"So are you going to take us out now?" Butch's voice is simmering with anger, yet he knew that he is incapable of enacting his anger.

Butch and Fennec stood there in silence, knowing well that despite their shared past, they are now enemies on opposite sides. Indeed, Butch understood that the sensory attack they had experienced earlier on came from Fennec. Butch knew that as of this moment they had no way of defeating such a ridiculously powerful ability. However, if she is truly an enemy that wanted them dead, she would have not allowed Butch the chance to even speak to her. Her silence is enough for Butch to understand that she did not expect this to happen to Brick as well. Butch's expression softened, and his eyes are now looking at Fennec with pleading eyes.

"Will you help me, Renee?" Butch asked the fox-like being, his pleading jade green eyes meeting the Lunatic's frost-ice blue eyes.

"This is not over yet." The fox-like woman spoke out after the great pause of silence.

"What do you mea-Brick? BRICK!"Butch turned his attention away from Fennec as he saw as his brother's body started convulsing violently.

Butch tried to hold his brother down, but the charcoal-haired teenager felt an unusual strength from the convulsing teenager and it took all his strength to hold his brother down. Blood-soaked foam started to form from Brick's mouth, and dark veins started to spread from Brick's neck towards his temple. Butch immediately yelled out to the Frenchwoman, asking her for help once more.

"RENEE! HELP!" Butch pleaded with her, his pair of watery jade eyes now focused on the fox-like Lunatic. The fox-like woman immediately rushed forward towards Butch and knelt down beside him. Despite their present differences, Fennec find it hard to ignore her former wards and their sufferings.

Fennec immediately tore apart Brick's clothes, and her worst fears are realized as the root-like infection had spread from Brick's wound throughout his body. The malaise is slowly branching into every artery and vein throughout Brick's body, yet Fennec can see that some parts of the malaise is being pushed back right before her eyes. Before she can tell Butch that there is still hope, an arm immediately grabbed her by the throat.

"What the-" Butch was taken by surprise at the attack, only for him to immediately look down to see that Brick had opened his eyes. However, instead of a pair of crimson red eyes that he had grown accustomed to, Butch only saw a pair of dark abyss looking back at him.

The black veins on Brick's face soon pierced out from his skin to form a half-mask over half of Brick's face. Butch's instinct kicked in and Butch immediately leaned back and fall flat down on his back on the ground, barely avoiding the slash from the bone-like weapon with the blood-red crystalline blade. Fennec immediately broke Brick's arm, releasing the Rowdyruff Boy's grip to escape. It was a moment too late as the blade slashed her chest before she backed away. Blood flowed freely from her chest as she gripped on her injury. The young red-haired Rowdyruff Boy erected himself and soon stood tall, with a dark wicked smile on the exposed part of his face. The grin on Brick's face is unnaturally wide, and Butch noticed that his brother's teeth is turning sharper.

"WHAT THE HELL BRICK!" Butch yelled out to his brother, but it appear that it had fallen on deaf ears.

"This is bad." Fennec cursed, all while holding on to her wound.

The thing that had taken over his brother's body started to chuckle, and immediately he knew that the voice did not belong to his brother. No, to be exact, his brother's voice is still there, but Butch can hear another voice overwhelming his brother's own voice. The chuckle soon moved on to a laugh, and then a hysterical guffaw. Butch is never one to think too much about anything, but this time, Butch is forced to think and he cursed his inability to solve the issue right before his eyes.


[Brick's Mindscape, Time Unknown]

Brick found himself staring at a three-headed hound-like monster with a slender, powerfully built figure that is both graceful and grotesque. The monster's beautiful black coat is at odds with its starved appearance with a sloping back and large, deeply descending ribs. Upon further examination, Brick realized that each heads is a grotesque amalgam of a hound and a crocodile with three pairs of tusks protruding from the fulcrums of its mouths. The multiple crazed-bloodshot eyes glared at its prey, and immediately Brick knew that it is out for blood.

The monstrous being lifted one of its moderately longs legs out from the savannah and slowly stepped forward with the grace of a regal apex predator. The sharp-bone like teeth of the hellish hound bared itself and its large curved back conflagrate into a mane of dark red flames, lighting up the dark body of the monster with a crimson glow that darkened the rest of the mindscape. One of the heads spat out the the bone-like weapon with the crystalline blade from its mouth, and the blade fell just inches away from Brick. With its mouth freed from the weapon, the other mouth snarled, baring its rows of vicious teeth at the rat-like abomination.

"What the hell..." Brick took his time to register the primal being that had just pushed back the monstrous black abomination.

Seeing its chance, Break-Hound forced its strength upon the injured monster and its three heads bit deeply into the rat-monster's body. The three heads shook violently before rolling its entire body to twist away the flesh from the abomination's body. Brick watched as the hound started ravage the injured abomination and the conversation of the matter is limited to the attacks meant to kill one another. The slashing of claws, the biting of flesh, and the crushing of bones are dialogues and topics to the conversation of who gets to slaughter and devour the other. The frantic pace of this macabre conversation reached a feverish pitch as pieces of flesh and limbs were separated and discarded with bloodthirsty and reckless intentions.

This is a conversation between two monsters intending to be the last one standing.

The thought leaves an unsavory taste in his mouth, and Brick knew that he will need to do something about it. He will not let the fate of his existence to be determined by these two monsters. Brick will decide his own fate, and if his fate is to disappear, he rather do it on his own terms. The grim thought is the only solace he have in this situation, for brick have no idea what is happening with his body as of this moment. Brick immediately grabbed the Hound's Vengeance and watched for an opening.

The two beings immediately charged towards one another, and the resulting impact shook the ground below them. Fighting purely on instinct and brute strength,the two monsters savagely bit and clawed at each other, with scores of ichor and blood showering everywhere. Brick wanted to strike but these two monsters are not giving him the opening needed to kill the hellish rat-like abomination. Whatever blind spots that Brick had spotted is immediately covered by either one of its many limbs and heads or obstructed by the wolf-like monster's mass. This is not the ideal battle situation for Brick as his own ally, if one were to call Break-Hound that honored distinction, is engulfed in its own savagery and preventing him from doing anything towards the rat-monster.

"Honestly, why the hell did you turn into that monster?" Brick clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Right now, Brick appreciated his doppelganger's human form more, for Brick knew that Break is a much more competent combatant than he is, being able to seamlessly combine both savagery and ruthless cunning into an impressively elegant fighting style that is both crude and refined at its finest. That is the skill that Brick needed to strike at the beast, and Brick hate to admit it but he felt that he does not have what it takes to emulate Break's combat style. Yet, Break is Brick, and Brick knew that he had it in him to do so. Brick now sorely wished that he had Boomer's unbridled optimism, and he clicked his tongue once in annoyance.

However, the rat-like abomination wrestled the three-headed hound to the ground, and continued to press it down on the ground with its various boulder-like arms. The rat-like abomination countless heads are now paying attention to Brick's presence, and Brick realized that he had no energy within his body to move around. Brick fell to one knee, and the only though in his mind is that he should have hid instead.

"God damn it." Brick cursed with a fatigued smirk.


[Townsville Park, Downtown Townsville, 10.05pm]

"God damn it. Butch smirked.

Butch did not expect his brother to be possessed by a demon, for he expected his brother to be way more smarter. Right now, the charcoal-haired teenager is finding himself in a situation that he felt is beyond his normal capacity to handle.

The demon had managed to surprise Fennec with its attack and if it were not for Fennec's quick thinking of breaking his brother's arm, she would have lost her head. The Lunatic is still holding on to her wounds, and the wounds appear to be burning with a dark red flame. Butch figured that he will need to beat some sense into his brother, and a pair of spike-stuffed gauntlets materialised around his arms. Butch watched his brother, no, the demon that took his brother's body for any signs of aggression.

To Butch's chagrin, the demon continued on laughing despite having a broken arm. The demon rested the back of the bladed weapon on its shoulders as it stopped laughing, though the unnatural grin remained on its face. Butch had always hated Brick's smirk, but to see that combined with an entity taking over his body and manipulating it like a puppet had amplified his distaste.

That is enough to propel Brick towards his brother, his spiked gauntlets forming around his hands. Butch attempted to unleash a liver blow, but instead he found his fists was about to make contact with the crystalline blade. Butch immediately activated his reflector field around his fists, and the blade met the field and erupted into a massive explosion that blow both their arms back.

Butch allowed his arm to be blown back and the resulting blow swung his body naturally and explosively towards the other half. Butch took advantage of the inertia an immediately followed up with his other arm attempting to land a kidney blow. The demon spun itself as well, its action backing away from Butch's blow and reducing its strength. However, the demon did not anticipate Butch using the fist that was blown away to return to its face in the form of a spinning backhanded fist slamming to its temple.

The possessed Rowdyruff Boy spun around like a ragdoll and crashed towards the ground, but Butch did not even give the chance for the rest of Brick's body to slam to the ground as the dark-haired Rowdyruff Boy aimed his kick at the torso with all his might. Brick's body was launched like a soccer ball and a trail of dust followed behind the spinning body before it slammed into several trees in the park.

But Butch had underestimated how quickly the demon would recover from its blows, as Butch's body moved before his thoughts figured it out. Butch flipped sideways, barely missing a black crescent with red outlines slashing through the air. Butch started to deflect several more of those slashes with his reflector-enforced gauntlets, but each blow is enough to cause a dent on his gauntlets. Butch's conscious use of his reflectors had made his breathing ragged and irregular, and his gauntlets are battered from the blows caused by his brother's weapon.

Butch immediately felt a slash behind his back, and he felt the odd sensation of the blade causing a friction with his shoulder blade and part of his spine. Butch turned around to see a pair of abyss-colored eyes staring back at him. Butch stared into the abyss, knowing that the abyss is going to swallow him whole. Another slash met Butch's ribcage, and Butch felt as if he is being disassembled piece by piece.

A kick on the slash wound is all it took for Butch to finally realize the shock and pain from his injuries, and he yelled. Butch rolled on the ground, but soon the Rowdyruff Boy is held in place by a foot on the large wound on Butch's chest. Butch groaned in pain, but his attention is soon focused on the blade pointing towards his eye.

"Time to die, boy."

"Butch!"A flash of light blue entered into Butch's vision and immediately he felt his body pulled away and he felt something surprisingly soft pressing on his torso. He soon felt his body being thrown down on the ground and he looked up to see a female clad in a dress-like armor with a armored skirting that goes down to her thighs with a black-stripped corset that blended seamlessly with the rest of the light-blue armor. The sleeveless skirt-like armor protecting her thigh, which in turn are encased in a white legging armor. Her lower legs are encased in black smooth angular peg boot. The arms are encased in form-fitting full-length light blue glove gauntlets, while her shoulders are covered with white fabric -like armor. The biker-like helmet with two tear-dropped shaped attachments to the side of the helmet turned towards Butch's direction, illuminated by several plasma orbs glowing around a a floating white-ringed disc with several nodes hovering behind the person's back.

"Are you alright?" The person voiced out, and Butch recognized the female's voice.

"Bubbles?!"

"Looks like you're alright and- Oh no." Bubbles's tone is filled with a saddened despair as she found out what she is facing.

"Yeah...took you long enough." Butch said abrasively, despite knowing that it is not the best time to do so.

"No...what is that?" Bubbles pointed out, and it is now Butch that is surprised.

The possessed Rowdyruff Boy appear to have dropped his weapon, and is now clawing at his own anguished face. The fingernails dug deep into the face of the possessed red-haired Rowdyruff Boy, and blood soon came out from the clawing. An inhuman screech escaped its mouth as the possessed boy dropped down on his own knees. Bubble' body moved, causing Butch to yell out to the Powerpuff Girl.

"You idiot!" Butch warned, but to his surprise the Powerpuff Girl was able to approach the possessed Rowdyruff Boy without being attacked.

Butch watched as the possessed Rowdyruff Boy stared at Bubbles with a pair of pleading abyss-colored eyes. Butch was about to breathe a sigh of relief until he saw one of Brick's hand reaching out towards the bone-like weapon on the ground. Butch immediately burst into action and he reached just in time for him to kick his brother's arm at the elbow. A bone-breaking sound ringed in Butch and Bubbles' ear, and Butch felt immediate guilt for breaking Brick's arm.

Butch grabbed Bubbles by her waist and pulled her away to safety from his own possessed brother. However the strain of such movements only served to make his wounds worse, and Butch felt his wound opening wider than before. Butch landed and a great pool of blood soon formed where Butch stopped. Bubbles was shocked to see Butch's injuries worsened and she wanted to say something to the Rowdyruff Boy before he stopped her.

"Worry about your boyfriend first dumbass!" Butch growled.

Both teenagers faced towards Brick and the shadow-like demon had decided to make his mark more apparent. A shadow rat-like tail formed itself from the base of Brick's spine, and the broken arms were reinforced with a plastic-like solid darkness. Brick's cap fell off his head, and a dark wide-brimmed fedora formed on its head.

"It?!" Bubbles recognized the identity of the entity possessing Brick.

" You know... this asshole? " Butch struggled to ask Bubbles as he gritted his teeth in pain.

" Yes. He is the one that attacked Professor Utonium. " Bubbles answered, causing a shiver down Butch's spine.

Butch picked up on the Powerpuff Girl's voice and there is a simmering hatred that Butch never thought he would hear from the most gentle Powerpuff Girl. He had seen her being angry before, but Butch had never seen her hated anyone before. The voice blared a message in Butch's mind that reason will not be able to stop this Powerpuff Girl from enacting the most violent beatdown that he will ever see her do. Indeed, Butch felt it in his bodily fiber that Bubbles had earned her god-given right to kick this demon's ass.

"He's all yours." Butch told the Powerpuff Girl, knowing well that if he did not let her do as she pleases, he might end up at the receiving end of her fury.