Chapter 39
Meanwhile.
It was the most fun Zombieman has had in years. For the past week, Metal Knight has been chasing him. Back and forth, up and down, all over the cities and supercontinent. Yet what really gets to him is when Zombieman is at the Heroes Association and plays dumb to it all. Today happened to be one of those days.
He was chatting it up with Snek, going over monster nests and locations when Metal Knight appeared. "Zombieman!" he shouted as best he could in a robot voice. "Why are you avoiding me?!"
He paused to the question. "Huh? You've been following me?"
"I've been trying to contact you for the past week!"
"Oh… my bad," he said and turned back to Snek. "Anyway, these areas here…"
"You will lift this curse from me now!" he ordered.
He paused as Snek turned to him. "Curse? What curse?"
"Don't play dumb with me Naga!"
Snek was rather stunned, he adjusted his tie slightly before a smirk came over him. "Well, I did have him going for a few years, about time he caught up. So… curse huh? Oh right, you being a metal golem…"
"Turn me back. I have killed the Shadow King and his partner, now I am the new king! I order you to turn me back!"
Snek froze. "Bad…"
"He wasn't hard to deal with in his condition."
Snek hissed, his eyes turned serpent but Zombieman held him back. "Easy now. You know what, fine. But if you really want to be turned back…"
"Do it now!"
"Okay," he said rather carelessly. Zombieman's hand began to glow. Then the symbols on the robot began to shine, only to be removed. From there, he reached beyond the metal and wrenched out Bofoi!
He dropped the old man to the ground before glaring down at him. "Reap what you sow," Zombieman stated.
That was when the hallways darkened. Emergency lights came on for but a moment, that was when Zombieman saw him.
Botan appeared for but a moment, before vanishing into the darkness once more. Bofoi jumped at the sight as he snapped to his feet. "That boy… that kid… he's not a kid anymore!"
"What kid?" Snek asked.
"Botan… that boy name Botan… Metal Bat and Garou's son!" he protested. "But why… GAH!"
He was grabbed by the throat. Botan had pinned Bofoi to the wall and held him there. "So… you did in my fathers… so you could be the new shadow king?" he asked in a sadistic tone.
Bofoi tried to choke out a plea, but it couldn't escape. Botan then leaned in and whispered. "You only become the shadow king when ALL descendants are dead…" he whispered. "I'm not"
He dropped Bofoi to the ground carelessly. The old man gasped for air as Botan turned to his scouter droid. "Huh, to think you wanted to be separated from that… after all, when I am through with you, that merely would have turned you to scrap. But… you would have lived… Oh well…" He vanished into the darkness, as all the lights came back one.
Snek glared down at Bofoi and sighed. "You didn't think this through did you?"
"What… what does he want?"
"Revenge, you just killed his parents. Not to mention, claiming to be King of the Shadows when he is in fact the Prince of the Shadows…" Zombieman said offhandedly. "But, what do I know. So, it's going to be a battle huh?"
"Battle?!"
"You just claimed to be King, he has the right to challenge you on that." said Snek. "Damn, you left your robot suit at the wrong time… you would have at least survived…"
Bofoi began to tremble. He turned back to his robot suit, but he didn't realize. Zombieman just vanished as Bofoi realized he fucked up…
#
"I think that went rather well…" Amai announced as Botan returned. He filled in Zenko to their plan.
She sighed aloud and said. "You are so their kid," without an ounce of sarcasm in her voice.
Botan smirked to her input. "I won't hurt the old man… that much. I know he has to be punished, but at the same time… we can't let him off scotch free either."
Amai agreed. "Normally, I wouldn't hesitate to kill, but that's just my perspective on things. If we were to kill him, we are not leaving ourselves any favors for later on"
Botan agreed. "I know, but what can we do?" he asked. "I mean, he's an old man. I can't hit him that hard, I'll kill him!"
"We will figure something out…" Amai insisted. "By the way, how are you convincing him he is the Shadow King?"
"Oh, that's easy, I sent him Bloodbore to 'assist' him. Yet since he is out of his robot body now. He won't understand what the shadows are saying to him. So he can figure something out."
"You truly are their child…" Amai said and snickered. "Such an amazing blend of the both of them. However you are still more level headed then they are."
"You're welcome," said Zenko. "I helped raise him too!"
#
Over the past few days, Botan would toy with Bofoi. Randomly appearing here, there, his lab…
It got to the point where Sitch called Botan and questioned him. "What are you doing? Why is Metal Knight out of his suit?" he asked.
"Payback and hopefully going to make him learn a valuable lesson. I just need a little more time until the duel."
"Duel?" Sitch asked.
"Yeah, we sort of tricked him, having him believe that he killed my dads and became the new shadow King…"
There was silence on the other end. "He didn't…"
"Of course not! Dad and Father are with Death at the moment at some sort of feast or whatever! Besides, if he DID kill them, he wouldn't be alive right now."
"That's fair… okay just hurry it up please and no prolong this much more. He keeps coming to me asking for protection or special equipment to use against you…"
Botan snickered. "Fair enough, thanks Sitch," and hung up.
He has been planning for all of this, he has even researched on things he can do to Bofoi to ensure he never harms another innocent life again. There are all sorts of black magic that he could use, but to go about doing it he wasn't sure. "I don't have my full power yet, dad and Father haven't unlocked that yet from me, so I can't say I can do these spells…" he muttered as he went over the books in the study.
"Young Prince?"
He paused as he turned to see Coldblood. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance. I am well versed in what one can do with limited power. I have also read every book in your father's possession. There is a spell you can cast that will ensure that one… Metal Knight, keeps his word."
Botan paused. "Please, tell me,"
Coldblood smiled. "Of course, young Prince, here's what you need to do…"
