Mad Max: Road to Salvation: Volume 3
Episode 64: What have I become?
A/N: I know this took months, but I spent that time trying to think of how to do this perfectly. Unfortunately my search for perfection led me astray. This might not be as good as I hoped but please understand that did my best.
[blueassassin: it certainly would be.]
[Crazy Carl: I've been considering that, big time. I've also wondered about the reverse, what if the girls of team RWBY were split among the territories of the wasteland. I wonder which strongholds would each girl fit in at, Ruby might fit at Pink Eye's place.]
[Lordofuselessness: Indeed he did, that child has suffered so much at his hands and for that this road war is about burn with fury!]
[Master Scarcity: Thank you! I'm sorry this took so long. Blame writer's block.]
[Guest: Sorry about that. Glad you understand.]
[Wombag1786: Thanks buddy!]
Max seethed with rage as he struggled to stand on his feet, his past nightmares were happening all over again. It all came rushing back to him like a flood of misery, the pain, the curses, the madness. "No… no. Not again." He whispered in agony while he gripped his head.
"Max! Are you ok?!" The fox faunus shouted in concern as she approached the road warrior. But the man just shoved her away when she got close to him, and Mari backed away slowly when she saw the look in his eyes. For the briefest moment it seemed almost like a demon had possessed the man she knew. The fire in his gaze told her what words never could, and it was enough to make her back away in fear.
"I should have come here alone." Max hissed angrily at his associate as he reached his full standing height. "Leave, Mari." The road warrior walked towards the exit, away from the speechless faunus. With a snort of rage Max sprinted to outside the building, he had to get to the interceptor immediately and catch Vulk. He had no time for idle talk, action was his only course at the moment. Despite his body's cries of pain and agony, Max didn't cease his sprint back to his vehicle. Every second he wasted outside of the car was another second that his child was in the hands of a monster worse than himself.
Mari recovered from her initial shock and called out to the Road Warrior. "Wait Max! Get back here!" Max didn't answer, he simply kept moving…. Just as he always did, if he stopped too long then he would pay the price. Suddenly as if by an act of divine providence or just the universe showing a twisted sense of kindness to the road warrior, the interceptor skidded to a halt in front of the garage exit and Bruz was at the wheel. A fire lit the wheel jockey's eyes when he spotted that holy roller, to see once again that car which he'd trusted with his life and the boy driving it was a small miracle for him at the very least.
He gripped the door handle and slid into the seat of passenger seat of the car before his apprentice could even say a word. "Back seat, now." The road warrior growled as he stared ahead into the distance.
"Boss, what happened?! Where's Anya?!" The wasteland mechanic asked his stepfather out of concern for his younger sibling. "You gotta tell me boss!"
"He's got her, now we're going to get her back. Swap seats, I'm driving." Max said with a dead serious gaze into Bruz's eyes, and at once the young man went silent and did as he was told. Now wasn't the time for him to argue or be surprised, with Anya in the hands of a murder happy monster useless talk would solve nothing. After a moment of readjustment of the seating arrangements, Max stomped on the gas pedal and a blast of hellfire seethed from the exhaust pipes of the interceptor. Tire tracks and flames were left in the wake of the rage filled hot rod as it barreled down the road ahead of it. Mari could only watch as the car disappeared into the distance, a sick feeling was left in her stomach when she could no longer see the vehicle. The calmer man she knew as the driver of that vehicle had vanished, in his place was someone cold and ruthless born of fury and desperation.
On the streets Max and Bruz were pulling out all the stops to catch up to Vulk, avoiding civilian traffic when possible. Violations and punishment for their reckless pursuit be damned, Max could not allow more innocent blood of his children to spilled for his failures. Many cars honked and skidded out of the way of the Interceptor as it sped through the intersections along its path, the vehicle itself was going far over the speed limit. Feral instinct was driving the man behind the wheel of the black car, like angry creature of the woods that was out for blood. Bruz clenched his fists and held on for dear life as the car rattled and roared through the streets of Vale as if hell itself was chasing it. "Boss, do ya even know where he went?" Asked the manic mechanic. "We can't let that bastard get away with this!"
"If we lose him, then where would he go? I need to know now." Max ordered as he swerved around a corner, right through the path of a delivery truck. It was a lucky thing that Vulk seemed to leave a trail of destruction of his own for them to follow along.
"Ya took his base so… he'd want to get Anya on ice, that means in a cage and out the city fast as possible. It'd need to be faster than on wheels, couldn't be on boat… it's got to be air." Bruz replied with his razor teeth clenched in in fear for his little sister's life.
"What I asked was WHERE, not how." Max snarled at the teenager.
"There's-… WAIT THERE HE IS! Speed up boss!" Bruz pointed ahead at the speeding truck as it plowed a sedan out of its way. The civilian car flipped on its side in a crumpled heap of metal and flames as the dust in its motor ignited. Max clutched the steering wheel hard and speed right by the destroyed car as he closed in on the monster rod pick up of Morta Vulk. The truck swerved to keep the pursuit special behind it, not that the black car could pos much threat against a vehicle that seemed built to take pain of all sorts. Mines began to fall off the back of the truck and Max swerved to the opposite side to dodge the explosives before they detonated. A tap on the boost of the black car got it beside the cab of the truck, right into the sights of the truck's driver.
Vulk grinned down at his opponent and cranked the wheel hard to the side for a tight turn that would result in a heavy hit to the interceptor.
"Hang on tight!" With only a split second to react, Max pulled the emergency brake managed to drift out of the way of the swerving pickup truck.
Instead of hitting the truck, the interceptor slammed into the side of a building with a hard slam. Max shook his head and touched a hand to the small trickle of blood on his fore head from the injury the impact had caused. A meaty hand stuck out of the window of the truck, the middle finger was raised in the air in a clear jab at the efforts of the dup. Max looked to his side to see if Bruz was alright, and the young man seemed unscathed by the hit for the most part, only a bit shaken up. With his check over, Max cranked the ignition of the interceptor and rejoiced when the motor roared to life again, it would take more than a simple accident to kill the machine with a thousand lives, which as Chumbucket had claimed was "a true spiritual rival to the Magnum Opus".
Smoke belched from the interceptor when Max stomped the pedal and shifted into the gear for a quick take off to get back in the chase. Catching the underworld warlord was proving to be a challenge of cubic proportions for the road warrior, but he did not falter in his pursuit, so long as Anya was in the clutches of the monster, Max could not rest. Max drew his shotgun and fired at the tires of the vehicle in order force it to stop. He'd used that trick before in the wasteland, it stood to reason that same trick would work again, it had to if he was going to succeed. Pellets dinged off the side armor on the rim of the wheel but an audible pop signaled that the shot had done some damage to the tire. Vulk caught on to what the road warrior was trying to do and swerved again to stop them, along with dropping more mines on the road. Loud bangs and booms came from the explosives as they tumbled past the speeding interceptor. As the chase dragged on they reached the outskirts of the city, specifically an area near the ocean with plenty of high cliffs.
"Boss are we gonna catch the wanker or what?!" Growled the young mechanic.
"You still have that gun you made? The morph one." Max asked his step son.
A wild look took over the boy's visible facial features when Max's idea clicked in his mind. "Yeah…. I do." He mumbled in joy. "TIME FOR THE PEACMAKER! I'm on it!" Bruz grinned with savage delight as he unholstered the special weapon from his back. The purple themed mode of the morph gun popped into shape when Bruz brought it to bear. The tipped of the gun was characterized by what appeared to be in shape of a small skull from a beowolf grimm creature.
"You know what to do." Max said as he tried to steady the car for what Bruz was going to do next.
"This is going to be wild." Bruz chuckled to himself as he stuck the barrel of the gun out of the window of the car. A ball of energy formed in the mouth of the grimm skull as Bruz held the gun's trigger down. "Enjoy the carnage. Anya, I hope this doesn't hurt ya." The second the trigger was released, the energy ball homed in on the enemy vehicle and caused a huge explosion upon contact with one of the rear wheels of the truck. Vulk clutched the child's head and went wide eyed in surprise while he felt the truck fly off the ground, he turned his head to the window and clawed towards it in the slow crawl of time before the vehicle would hit the dirt. The vehicle flipped into the air and landed on it side near the edge of a cliff. Max hit brake and the interceptor skidded to a halt a short distance away from the wrecked truck.
Max stepped out of the car, his trusty sawed off shotgun unholstered for battle. Bruz stepped out beside him with the morph gun swapped to blaster mode, and the two men approached the car wreck at a careful pace. Bruz aimed the red laser sight of the gun at the driver side window where he assumed Vulk would be, but Max knew it would not be so simple and made his way to the passenger side of the wreck. The road warrior's eye twitched when he saw nothing inside the vehicle, not even the body of the warlord.
"So, ya think ya caught me. Nice try with that blast, almost had me." Said Vulk as he climbed up over the side of the cliff.
"WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK!" Bruz cussed at the warlord as he clawed up onto the dirt, Anya was held in his other hand.
"Should know better than that little bruzza. I'm not that easy to kill." Vulk said with a sinister tone as he stomped towards the two fighters. "Now I'm gonna kill you both, so come here and perish. Your deaths will be legend."
"I told you I would find you, now I want my daughter." Max said with an unflinching tone of rage.
"You want her, driver? She's right here, all you need to do is get by me." Vulk replied as he held up the child, she appeared to be unconscious and bleeding badly. "I didn't expect ya to do what ya did, nearly killed both of us. Ya got guts, I admit that."
"Let. Her. Go." Max hissed as he stepped forward.
"Or what?" Vulk cackled. Max didn't reply, he charged at the warlord in a burst of speed and rolled under the huge mace that was swung his direction. Bruz chased after him and fired two shots from the blaster at Vulk's arm, which forced the large man to drop the little girl onto the dirt. Max fired his gun into Vulks gut, the aura took much of the hit from the fire dust shells in the tubes but he managed to stay o his feet. He brought down his free fist and smacked Max upside the head , that sent the road warrior flying onto his back.
Max landed and rolled himself over to stand back on his feet, blood filled his eyes in fury and he charged once again at the warlord. A flurry of punches struck the torso of the warlord forcing him to step back a few times, but he recovered and thrust the handle of his mace at Max's body, knocking the road warrior back. Bruz ran up behind the warlord and grabbed onto the shoulders of the meaty giant, punching his head several times. "Get off me ya mongrel!" Snarled the warlord as he wrapped a hand around Bruz's neck and tossed him aside.
Bruz thudded onto the floor and immediately stood back up. "I got worse beatings than this."
"Come get yer vengeance then, your mutt brother bawled when died by the way. He was a waste of fur and flesh." Vulk said with a laugh as he swung the mace Bruz's chest. The mechanic huffed as the huge ball of steel hit him straight in the gut, which almost knocked the wind out of him, though he did not back down. Thanks to his semblance, the dingo faunus managed to keep his feet on the ground and stared straight into the eyes of his hated enemy. This caught the giant by surprise, he'd never know the little bastard was actually able to do that.
Bruz noticed this and smirked in triumph. "Guess what. A few years ago I unlocked my semblance, and I'm gonna kill you with it."
"Let's enjoy this then!" Vulk roared as he yanked the mace back from Bruz's hands and kicked the boy in chest. Bruz still stood his ground and skidded back slightly from the force of the kick that Vulk had thrown at him.
"You forget? We got another player here." Bruz snarled with a smile, as he held onto the leg of his enemy.
Several punches struck Vulk hard in the spine, he grunted in agony as Max kept whaling away on his back in a surge of fury. Max embraced the blood rage, he wanted to bring down Vulk all that fury in his system wouldn't fade until he was the winner, dead, or both. Vulk backhanded the road warrior with his other arm and shook the faunus off of his leg. "You're not going to beat me that easy! Come at me! I'm ready for glory and blood!" Vulk roared loudly at his two opponents.
"Remember what they called me in the ring?!" Bruz shouted as he sprang back up to his feet then struck Vulk across the face with a punch. Blood pooled in the warlord's eyes but he did not seem shaken by the force behind the hit, even with Bruz's high density semblance the villain simply grew angrier.
Vulk chuckled with a murderous grin. "You were my War Dog, and now I'll put you down!" He retorted as he gripped Bruz by the throat, squeezing the life out of the former cage fighter. Max shook in pure rage as he stood back up and unholstered his shotguns, pointing them directly at Vulk's back. Flames erupted from the barrels of the guns when Max pulled the trigger, which scorched the back of the warlord and flung him to the ground. Now on his knees, Bruz breathed heavily to recover from nearly being strangled to death.
Deciding to press his advantage, Max ran at Vulk in a blood fueled haze and began laying into the warlord with several punches in quick succession. The knuckle dusters on his fists tore at the armor worn by the Vulk as the fists behind him kept smacking against their target. Unfortunately for Max, Vulk managed to recover and the punches lost their potency. The warlord smacked a fist into Max's skull as retaliation for the blitz of hits he had sustained. Max spin around and dropped onto the ground, his head swam with confusion as he laid in the dirt, barely conscious enough to attempt to stand back up. Seconds later a heavy force landed on the road warrior's back, immediately Max felt the impact of the hit and cried out in pain as Vulk's boot crushed his spine. Agony was the predominant thought in Max's mind as he struggled against the weight pressing down him, all he could do was thrash around in desperation to escape being pinned in such a manner.
"Embrace the pain. It's going to be the last thing you'll feel before I rip your skull from your corpse." Vulk cackled as he pressed down harder on Max's back in sadistic pleasure at the wanderer's suffering. A roar came from Max's throat as he tried to force his way back onto his feet in spite of the boot on his back, slowly getting his hands under him to push up. Vulk had to admit, the driver was tenacious in his desire to live but then many of his prey had wanted to live just as badly. More force was applied to Road Warrior's back to force him to the ground, but Max continued to rise against the might of Vulk.
Suddenly Bruz leapt from behind Vulk and wrapped his arm around the small giant's throat. "Forgot about me?!" Shouted the mechanic. Vulk swung his head back into the skull of the boy, he grunted in pain when he felt his own brain shake due to the impact of his skull and that of Bruz's. "My semblance increases the density of my body, so hitting me just bounces that back on you!"
"Clever tactic, boy. But this is going to be my victory!" Replied Vulk, who began to pry Bruz's arm off of him. "You two have given me more trouble in these short days than I've had in years!" Bruz's arm lost its grip and the boy was flung over the shoulder the warlord onto the ground.
Meanwhile, a short distance away from the fighting was the tiny body of Anya. The little girl struggled to open her eyes, she needed to see what was happening. Tired eyes flickered open, the view before them was one Anya shuddered at the very sight of. Her father and brother were at the mercy of the monster that had tortured her for hours on end, her blood ran cold from memories of the phantom pain her body had experienced. Now the two people who'd come to save her were about to die. She watched her adoptive father and brother struggle in the grip of the madman, she couldn't bear that thought of loss again. "Papa…" She whispered with what little strength she could muster. For the briefest moment she could see her father turn his head to her and his eyes went wide at the sight of her being conscious. A great heave came from Max as he push even harder to stand up, but it amounted to nothing, just more struggle against an immovable object.
Hot tears welled up in her eyes as she watched her two heroes face their doom. It couldn't end like this, she couldn't lose another father, and her step brother. She hated this feeling, she hated being broken and helpless, but that was what she was. Or at least that is what she had believed herself to be, just a helpless little girl who was given a broken body by her tormentor. Little did she know that her body had begun to glow, it was faint but something had stirred within her soul that manifested around her. As if by magic, the child felt a ghostly hand on her shoulder and a warm feeling rose in her chest. She grasped at the warmth within her and the heat intensified, burning hotter and hotter than she'd ever felt in her entire life.
A bright light shined at the three fighters and Vulk turned his attention to the source of the light, it was none other than Anya who was now standing on her badly injured legs and sporting a pair of burning wings on her back. "Leave them alone." Said the saintly child. A ball of what could only be described as hell fire formed in the palms of her hands, she clapped them together and suddenly a blast of fire shot towards the warlord.
"Oh… scrap." Vulk muttered right before he was bathed in hellish flames from the waist up. "Grrrraaagghgh! IT BURNS, IT BUUURRRNS!" He screeched as he stumbled away from Max and Bruz, both of whom could only stare at the child in awe of what she doing. Max took a breath at what he witness to, the sweet child who'd saved him was now using the powers he'd known that she'd been imbued with. But as he watched on, he noticed cracks forming on her skin, a red glowing energy was coursing through them when they formed. Bruz could also see the effects of the raw power on Anya's body and he knew it wasn't just her maiden powers that she was using, was this what the powers of the angel combustion could do? He looked to Max and the two of them locked eyes, whatever she was doing… all that power in her untrained body was going to kill her, and they both knew it.
"Stop it! Little sis, let off the gas! " Bruz shouted in warning to the child, but she did not respond to his call.
"Anya! Can you hear us?!" Max desperately tied to reach her, though his efforts were wasted. Anger had consumed the girl and
The stream of fire abruptly stopped a moment later and in Anya's hands a whip of what appeared to be blue plasma had formed. She whacked the warlord with the plasma whip and slammed him into the ground, creating a small crater from the force of the impact. "You're not going to hurt us, anymore." Anya muttered darkly. The girl's eyes filled with shadows in pent up hatred, and she looked at the warlord with all fury ready to release.
Vulk grunted in agony but he managed to stand on his own two feet, despite the suffering he'd faced at the girl's hands he felt more alive than ever before. "That's it… that's the power I've been searching for… you are the angel combustion made flesh!" Vulk cackled loudly and raised his arms in apparent welcoming of child demi god's wrath. "Show me! Show me more of your power!"
"NO MORE!" She cried out in a mix of pain and anger as she fired a blast of bright blue fire at Vulk.
"I embrace it, I embrace the flames!" Vulk cried as the stream sent him hurtling back over the edge of the cliffs into the sea.
He was gone, the warlord had vanished from their view in the blaze of the tiny angel's hellfire.
"She did it…" Bruz whispered in surprise.
The girl turned to face her family members and the fiery glow seemed turn from hate fueled heat to a warm embrace. But the cracks both Bruz and Max had seen were spreading even further on the child's body as she stood her ground. Then without any other warning, Anya's power disappeared and she leaned forward, collapsing onto the ground unconscious.
"Anya!" Max jumped to his feet and sprinted towards the tiny, sleeping demi god.
-END CHAPTER-