Mad Max: Road to Salvation: Volume 3
Episode 62: Shadow of Vulk PT 4
Post Date: 7/16/2019
[Wombag1786: Interesting song choice, and the car chase idea... I didn't think of that. I'm going to try to add that in this arc somewhere!]
[lordofuselessness: Your welcome and thanks. I felt that killing stumpy like that was something that'd hopefully be a bit different like what Deadpool did, albeit in a darker context.]
[Guest 1: Nice ideas, though I've been considering a more sagely color for Griffa to match the desert sands of where he came from. Thank you for the concept.]
[Guest 2: Well that's the thing Glynda is still in the early stages of her pregnancy and it will be quite some time before the boy enters the world. The name of the team to be for the moment is ATOM. Ada, Talia, Owyn, Mei. The boy's eventual name is inspired by Owyn Lyons from Fallout 3.]
-WITH MAX: VALE WAREHOUSE DISTRICT-
Max and his accomplice were currently patrolling the industrial area in their search for more clues to the whereabouts of the of the criminal Morta Vulk. The duo had spent a decent amount of time pummeling their local ear on the street for information. Needless to say, Junior was more than willing to comply to the road warrior's brand of persuasion since it involved plenty of pain. What Junior had shared merely pointed them in the right direction of whom they sought retribution against.
Even though he'd said very little during their time spent together in the car, Mari could tell something was different with the wasteland warrior. He'd always been quiet and distant with pretty much everyone they knew but now it seemed to go even further. She recalled what she'd seen thanks to doctor Grey's semblance but she never imagined seeing her cohort act so cold. When it came to vengeance Max was an old hand, she understood that much about him and it only served to make her realize just how much he'd only appeared to warm up.
Max seemed to sense what she was thinking and took a quick glance at her in the rearview mirror. His cold gaze confirmed to Mari that he wasn't going to hide the beast that was always there, it would get bloody. They drove on for several more minutes until Max reached a place to turn off of the street and into an alleyway between the industrial buildings.
"Why are we stopping? This it?" Mari asked her fellow fighter.
"We've driven all around the district, this is the closest we've gotten to what Junior described." Max grunted stoically as he pulled up to an abandoned looking warehouse. There were telltale signs of activity scattered around the area. Broken bottles littered and what appeared to be old splatters of body fluids the pavement. The two of them hopped out of the car and approached a strangely new reinforced steel door. Max placed an explosive charge at the base of the door and stepped back to watch the door blow up. He and Mari proceeded inside the ominous building with their weapons drawn and ready for action.
Max turned in his light to illuminate their path forward and Mari looked around the darkened inner hall of the warehouse with a chill running down her spine. "Why do I feel like we're being lead into a trap?"
"Because we are, think ahead of your enemy. He most likely knew we would go to Junior." Max replied to the cautious fox faunus.
"You're saying the weasel set us up?" She asked incredulously.
The road warrior returned her look with his usual dead serious expression. "Yes and no."
"Well that's comforting, oh wait it's not." Mari said sarcastically.
"Get used to it. We're going to spring the trap." Max told her.
"You want to play into his hands? And here I thought you were supposed to be the school's best tactician?! Coming from you, this is insane!" Mari exclaimed in shock at Max's lack of strategy.
The road warrior shook his head and decided to provide her with a better answer. "We're going to beat him at his own game, it won't be us trapped with him…"
"Oh, he'll be trapped with us. Well that works out perfectly except for the fact that we'll probably end up having to kill a bunch of goons if my intuition serves me right, and it usually does." Mari nodded in understanding and joked about the situation that was likely to occur.
"His lackey will be trapped, and we'll have a more reliable source of information. First we beat any useful information out of whoever is waiting for us, and then they die." Max stated the course of action for what they were about to attempt.
"Gotcha." Mari nodded again. The both them stopped in front of a weaker security door and Max knew exactly what to do.
Max grunted as he kicked in the door and unholstered his rifle. Mari followed closely behind him with her two pistols drawn and ready to fire. The room itself consisted of various seats, lights, speakers, and a large fighting ring that had been caged by three sides, the fourth side was waiting to be dropped. An announcer's booth overlooked the entire area with a grand view of the fights that went on in this place, and a black screen hung from the ceiling for measuring aura and other stats of the combatants. The smell of blood and death hung in the air of the makeshift stadium and it gave Max a sense of familiarity that he felt none too keen to recall. 'Two men enter, one man leaves!' The chant of the thunder-dome and the Gastown arena rushed back into his head. He tried to force it out of his mind, telling himself that he didn't have a choice. Whether or not he continued to believe that statement was another matter entirely. He gripped his gun tightly and grit his teeth in anticipation of the coming violence.
"This place is a bit too quiet. Where's all the scumbags?" Mari said as she scanned the expansive room with her pistols.
"Prepare yourself." Max said coolly.
As if to respond to his words, the screen lit up. "You must be really eager to die, wheel jockey. I have to give some credit though for actually having the solid steel gonads to come after me. Even though I warned you not to come, here you are. Well I'll let two of my boys handle you, RJ and Clocka!" Vulk's cackle echoed from the large monitor. "I'll enjoy your death, can't say you will though!"
Suddenly the entire room lit up with a horde of rabid thugs, all of them eager to drink blood. Two hulking figures stepped into the ring and Max received another brief flashback of his journey to Gastown. They were the splitting images of two of Scrotus's own warriors from the dead barrens and great white, one wore chrome-silver and the other sported gold. Both of them gestured for the two intruders to come into the ring for a bout of fisticuffs.
"I've got Goldie, you take Silverback." Mari said just before she jumped into the ring.
Max shook his head and ran after her into the battle that was about to erupt. The road warrior drew both his guns as he entered the ring and fired two shells in opposite directions at the hulking brawlers. The chrome schemed giant laughed as the shots impacted him. With the shotgun blasts barely affecting the large fighter, Max had to change tactics or he'd be inviting an opportunity to suffer. Mari seemed to answer his dilemma and leapt into the air for a spin kick, landing a shot to the jaw of the beastly top dog. Max used the newfound opportunity to begin hammering away at the top dog with a burst of fury he'd been waiting to unleash. Mari though was grabbed by golden warrior and slammed to the mat of the ring. She spat as a large boot pinned her to the floor and forced the air to rush out of her lungs. The foxy faunus squirmed in the painful grip of the hefty psychopath. Her fellow warrior tossed her a knife which she then used to stab CL in his leg forcing a groan of pain to escape the angry giant's lips. He removed his leg and Mari proceeded to repeatedly shoot his crotch with her twin pistols. Clocka ran at her and in a rage and unslung his hammer he swung the wrecking ball in her direction. The strike missed its target, thus allowing Mari to leap over it while firing her guns. Max on the other hand was busy slugging it out with his opponent punch for punch. His anger knew no bounds as he continued to tirelessly wail on the giant fighter. With a mighty shove Max was forced back and the powerful monster in front of him began throwing his own series of retaliating punches.
"Keep coming at me, I won't break so easy humie! I'm living high as the dust fumes will take me!" RJ shouted at Max while he threw several broad swings at the nimbler warrior.
Max backpedaled out of the way of the first strike, ducked forward under the second, and then sidestepped the third. "I don't care." The road warrior snorted furiously as he began delivered a heavy counter to his enemy.
-WITH BRUZ-
The young warrior growled to himself in anger to himself while he and his friends had wandered the city for quite some time before stopping to rest and consider their options. Krell had left to tell Ozpin what was going on and told the kids not to get into any trouble while he was gone. His words had gone unheeded as the teenagers had no intentions on doing so. Everyone had been tiptoeing on glass around the dingo faunus due to his more violent attitude.
As the teens stopped to rest Weiss decided to voice her opinion despite Bruz's fear inducing attitude. "Where are we even going?! We've walked around blindly long enough and there's something you're not telling us Bruz!" The heiress got in front of the angry faunus boy and looked him straight in the eye.
"If you have a problem then leave." Bruz snarled to his friend.
"I'm not going anywhere." She said spitefully.
"Bruz tell us what's going on. What was all that between you and 'Stumpy'?" Blake came to her teammate's aid and tried to reason with her fellow faunus
Bruz gritted his teeth and conceded to tell them a small part of tale of misery. "Grr, if it will get you to shut up, he and I survived together in the cages along with other faunus. Stumpy helped me escape from lock up by stealing an explosive. I blew it and left without looking back, end of story."
"Bruz stop." Sally jumped in and pushed Weiss aside.
"Stop what?!" The faunus boy hissed.
"This attitude of yours, it gets us nowhere closer to finding you sister at all you moron! Tell us what else you're hiding and drop the act! I not gonna just stand here and let you act moody like some edgy dweeb! Do you know how often a writer tries to add depth to a character like and all it does is just make them look lame and stupid?!" Sally ranted at her partner, practically biting his head clean off.
"Er, what?" Bruz grunted with a brief look confusion on his face. He shook his head and then narrowed his eyes at the bat girl. "If you haven't been paying attention, we have a slagging kid to save and you want to do this now!"
"Because you need a level head when we do find out where she is. Being riled up will let this Vulk guy get the better of you and you could lose Anya, is that what you want?" Titus joined in on the offensive with his take on current events.
"*sigh* No, it isn't." Bruz growled through gritted teeth.
"Then tell us what is going on, how personal is this? I can understand some of it, so let us help you." Blake told him with a determined look on her face.
"Fine damn it. It was back when I was a nipper. I got snatched up by some slavers who'd kidnapped me and my brother and killed my parents to boot. We fought everyday to survive in Vulk's murder game and my brother didn't make it. I made friends and rivals, or rather just other prisoners who I got to know. The strongest became Vulk's top dogs, and I was at the top of the food chain for a bit until I got away."
"You were a slave…" Weiss winced slightly when she recalled her own now abandoned prejudice.
"Damn right I was, Schnee." Bruz snarled the heiress's last name. " For a few years I had to kill over and over just to stay alive. I was practically bathing in blood and now that's all come back to haunt me. I guess distance doesn't mean a thing no matter what you run from."
"Then let us help you face it." Blake told him.
"I appreciate the sentiment as cheesy as it is, I really do, but you all should know that if you're following me then there will be blood."
"You're not killing someone else, we take bad guys down not out."
"I won't promise that Vulk doesn't die by the end of this one way or another. You all saw me kill stumpy, and I was just putting him out of his misery. Vulk has this coming, if not from me then from all the other people he's forced to kill each other like rabid animals. They deserve some payback." Bruz voiced his conviction to kill Vulk and avenge the wrongs he had committed.
"He's better off in jail, we aren't killers. We'll apprehend him and let the police handle it from there." Weiss said firmly.
"*sigh*Look how about this, we find Anya and deal with this then. I know the boss is probably killing his goons already." Bruz offered a temporary solution.
"What makes you say that?" Sally tilted her head.
"The fact that we fought in the middle of the park and have gone this long without any adults hassling us, that speaks volumes." Bruz chuckled sarcastically. "Isn't that right Rory?!" He turned his head and shouted to a nearby rooftop. A moment later the blue belle markswoman leapt from the roof with a graceful flip.
"How'd ya know I was there pardner? Come on be honest here." The blue sniper lifted the brim of her boonie hat.
"A lucky guess, and the fact that no one has seen you all day. I take it old man Ozzy told 'you' to watch 'us'. Oh by the Gods and Oum himself, I hate that know it all wizard, I really do."
"Ya got me, so what happens now?"
"I've got someone to save and all of you have the choice to follow me or not. Back out now or shut yer mouths and follow me."
"Alrighty then Hoss, where to?" Aurora crossed her arms.
"Err…" Bruz was stumped for a brief moment by the question but suddenly his scroll vibrated in his pocket. The dingo boy removed the device and opened it to see a text message with the directions to where his goal, at the bottom of the message was two familiar letters OZ. "That cheeky old wanker." The dingo teen hummed.
Aurora looked over her teammate's shoulder and chuckled. "Well looks like the old man was right to pick me to follow you."
"Hmph, let's cut the chatter and move it!" Bruz snorted and took off running to Max's position.
-END CHAPTER-