Hey, King Spike Rules here and here is the second part to Detonation Road. With Keith facing off against the snake Stand, can Kite figure out where the user is before any more deaths can happen to the city?
Chapter 30: Detonation Road pt 2.
Kite dashed away from the Stand, leaving Keith to face off against it alone. Moving in unison with Rhinestone Cowboy, they lifted their revolvers towards the enemy Stand. The being only cocked its head at them before shifting its gaze in the direction of the fleeing Kite. Keith stepped back into its line of sight with an annoyed expression, having noticed where it was looking.
"Your fight's still with me, buddy," Keith said, spinning his revolvers around before shooting at the Stand. The bullet pierced through the snakes on the Stand's chest, one after another, until it lodged itself in the opposite wall. "Act like it."
The being stumbled backwards, the attention of its many eyes returning to Keith. The hole in its body slowly filled with more serpents, while the Stand took hold of its own shoulder. Before Keith's eyes, it ripped the arm from its body, tossing the mass of snakes into the air.
"Oh...oh shit!" Keith yelled. He shifted his aim upwards, and alongside Rhinestone Cowboy, fired up at the arm. The resulting explosion sent dozens of snakes raining down around him, which he frantically shot at. Yet some managed to reach the ground, with one even landing on his shoe. Yet none of them were attacking him.
Only when he saw the one on his foot slither past him did Keith realize what was happening. He twirled around, but barely caught a glimpse of their tails leaving the alleyway, moving in Kite's direction. Keith took a step forward, but a chorus of hissing sounds from the opposite direction made him return his attention to the Stand. In a matter of seconds, it had regrown its arm and advanced towards him.
Everything about that attack had been a trick, and Keith had fallen for it. His face twisted into a furious glare. "Oh, you're going to pay for that," Keith spat, reloading his guns and aiming at it. "Draw."
Kite's metal "shoes" clacked through the streets, which the citizens had abandoned after the loud explosion. He felt a little relief that they were gone, since the user couldn't hope to blend into any crowds at this point.
"Come on, come on," Kite said, looking around the empty shops and other buildings in his frantic search for the user. Suddenly, the sound of slithering filled his ears, and he turned to see the snake bombs moving towards him. His footsteps came to a stop, and he lowered his visor over his eyes, ready to take them out.
"M-mommy? Where'd you go?" A young voice called out from behind Kite, the sound of which filled him with horror. He turned to find a small girl wandering among the buildings, tears in her eyes. She couldn't have been more than five years old. Throwing aside his caution of the snakes, Kite burst into a sprint, grabbing the child and holding her close. His eyes flickered around as he tried to find cover from the attackers.
As his head turned, he only just caught a glimpse of snakes leaping towards his exposed back.
Yet their fangs never reached him. The snakes were caught on a layer of spikes that formed out of his suit, piercing each of them in several places. Unfortunately, some of those places weren't their heads. Beep, beep, beep.
Renegades shifted back to its normal form, letting the snakes fall to the ground. Beep, beep, beep.
Kite ran even faster, creating wheels from the soles of his shoes. Beep, beep...beeeeep!
The explosions rang out through the empty streets, sending shards of concrete flying. The force of the combined explosions knocked Kite off his feet, straight through the walls of a nearby building. As the smoke settled, he groaned and uncurled his body, revealing the girl safely surrounded by a portion of Renegades. He'd lowered part of his armor to keep her safe, and though he could already feel the bruises forming, he still managed to grin at the girl.
"Are you okay?" he asked her. She didn't answer, instead staring up at him with confusion written across her face. Placing her back on the ground, he glanced around for any more snakes before awkwardly patting the girl's head. "Uhhh...God, trying to explain this is weird...Look, I'm gonna help you find your mommy, okay?"
Receiving only a slight nod, he picked her up and ran off towards another door. As he settled back into his strides, his mind filled with questions about his teammate. He could only hope that Keith could handle the situation.
Keith rolled away from an onslaught of snakes, sweat dripping down his face. He raised a finger towards the snake Stand, sending Rhinestone Cowboy to counterattack with its exploding bullets. In a matter of moments, the Stand was sent flying into the opposite wall, covered in gaping holes. Just as quickly, the wounds closed as more snakes filled the empty space.
"Damn, I'm starting to get low," Keith said, reloading his gun and firing at the enemy. The Stand's attacks continued, forcing him to redirect his attacks towards the new wave of snakes. By the time he was able to focus on the Stand itself again, it had already healed and prepared another attack. It was keeping Keith on the defensive, seemingly unable to do anything other than stave off its attacks. "Kite, you better find out who the user is soon, or I'll be gone before we even get to the final showdown!"
Kite ran with the child in his arms, looking back to see a few more of the snakes still following behind them. Growling in frustration, he darted into the space between buildings, trying to lose them in the alleyways. After taking a quick turn, his face paled when he found the alley ending in a brick wall.
"Damn it!" Kite whispered. Hearing several hisses from the direction he'd come, he took a deep breath, trying to think of an escape route. He moved the girl to his shoulders and took a few steps back, then sprinted towards the wall before leaping upwards. Just before the collision, small blades formed out of the metal on his limbs, letting him to find purchase in the cracks between bricks.
Grunting with exertion, he released one of the blades on his arms and picked up the girl, then began climbing up the wall with his legs and free arm. Every now and again, his hand would slip, and Renegades would go into overtime trying to grip back onto the wall.
Finally, he arrived at a window and climbed into the empty room. He set the child down, then shut the windows and slumped to the floor with a sigh of relief. After a few moments of quiet, he opened his tired eyes to see her looking at him with a worried expression. Kite cleared his throat and said, "Uh, s-sorry about all this, sweetie. But don't worry, we'll find your mommy."
"R-really?" she asked, a hopeful smile on her face as she looked up at him. He nodded, then shakily rose to his feet, looking to the nearby door. While his mind was still occupied by worries for Keith, Kite couldn't ignore the possibility that the snakes would come in looking for him. Leaving the girl behind would basically be a death sentence, and confronting the user with her might give them a hostage.
Even if it delayed the mission, he had to take the girl back to safety.
"Alright, first things first. What does she look like?" he asked, glancing outside through the window. No snakes in the alleyway.
His attention soon returned to the girl as she described her mother and the house they lived in. Kite repeated her address under his breath, though he couldn't stop feeling that there was something odd about the whole situation.
Once she was finished talking, Kite gently picked her up and walked out into the building's hallway. "Well then, let's get to looking for her," he said, legs racing down the nearest flight of stairs. His legs weren't alone; his thoughts were moving faster than ever, trying to piece the situation into a complete image.
Keith groaned, stumbling back from yet another explosion. His breathing was shallow, and drops of blood fell from his left arm, the victim of an earlier assault. Meanwhile, the snake Stand was unfazed by their battle. Its head cocked to one side, as if curious, before the being advanced on his battered form.
Keith glanced down at his revolvers. "N-nearly out of ammo," he murmured. He backed away until he reached a fork in the road, quickly hiding himself behind one of the nearby walls. He peered over the corner, keeping the Stand and its snakes in his line of sight. He raised his gun shakily, steadying himself with his uninjured arm.
"Kite, you have better got this figured out...Or else this is it."
Keith jumped from his hiding place, yelling a war cry as he unloaded his last few bullets into the Stand's chest. Rhinestone Cowboy fired its own bombs towards the Stand as well, scattering its head into dozens of pieces. Keith let out a tired smile as he watched the Stand stumble around. "Better make it count."
Kite rolled on with Renegades, cutting a path through the empty roads with ease. The city, normally filled with life, was eerily quiet. Everyone was hiding in their homes, and he was a major cause.
"When did my life get so complicated?" Kite muttered under his breath. As he passed by a street sign, he tried to focus back onto his current mission; he needed to get the little girl clutched to his chest home safely.
"A-are we almost there?" the girl asked, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. The sight made him smile in a way he rarely did.
"Yeah, we're almost there." he said, looking back to see if the snakes were following him. There were none, and he made a mental note that he must have reached past their range. With that knowledge, he should be able to narrow down the user's location.
Finally, they arrived at a small house near the start of the more suburban areas. "Is this the place?" he asked her, staring at the house. Somehow, the sight filled him with nostalgia for something he never had.
The girl nodded with a big grin on her face, which he slowly reciprocated. Transforming his Stand back to its base form, he carried her to the house. She pointed to the doormat, which he lifted up to reveal a plain key.
Keith panted heavily, trying to breath through all the dust their explosions had stirred up. Everything around him was shattered and singed, and his own Stand energy had been drained after using up so many bullets.
"Damn it," Keith managed, looking at his revolvers to find that he was now out of ammo. Seeing this, he moved back towards the rubble from the bombs, ready to jump over the wall. Hopefully in the kitchen, he could find some cover and stall for more time.
But as his legs tensed, a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. He staggered forward, reaching back to pull a butcher knife out of his back. Numbly, he turned around, eyes widening in shock as the chef from the earlier attack stood there. He was brushing dust off his clothes, seemingly unconcerned by the blood that had fallen by his feet.
"Do you have any idea how difficult it was to time my fall so that it matched the explosion? Ah, the things I do for the Major. Still, I knew hiding as a citizen would help me get the win against you idiots," the man said, meeting Keith's eyes. "Really, you had no chance against me or my Copperhead Road."
Keith stumbled back, blood oozing out of the deep cut in his shoulder. "I had a feeling you were here," he said, moving his hand from his shoulder so he could stand straight. "Otherwise, how could you have sent an attack after Kite with him leaving the area? You couldn't be in his direction, because you only sent a few snakes to stop him."
"Yeah, I guess the hick figured the easy part out," Tom said, rolling his eyes as though Keith had told a bad joke. He posed in place next to his stand, then continued, "But here's something you didn't figure out. You see, my Copperhead Road has two abilities. The snake bombs you've been struggling with for the past few minutes...well, that was only one of them."
"And the other ability?" Keith asked him with an annoyed tone. In reality, however, the tough act was only that; an act, and one he wouldn't be able to keep up for much longer. He was using all of his strength just to ignore the wishes of his body, which was going into shock thanks to the blood loss.
Either not noticing or not caring, Tom looked at him with a smug smirk. "Let's call it...mimicry," he said, looking for a reaction. But Keith only seemed more confused than before, so he added, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's not like you're going to last long enough to actually see it. Only Kite will be facing that problem."
That comment made Keith's eyes widen, and a look of dread crossed his face. Tom's smirk grew wider at the sight, and his eyes gleamed with the confidence of a predator.
Holding the key to the doorknob, Kite heard a small click, and gave the door a small push. He spared a final look for the little girl smiling in his arms, then slowly stepped into the room as the door swung open.
"Mommy?" she called out, holding onto Kite's hand tightly. He looked around the room for a few seconds before continuing on into the house. The door swung shut behind him.
As he stared down the smug Tom and Copperhead Road, Keith heard a thundering boom, which echoed as if from a long distance. Then, through the hole in the building, he saw massive plumes of smoke and flame rising from a few blocks away. He could even make out some particularly large chunks of debris, falling to earth like specks of dust.
Though he hoped otherwise, his heart sank at the thought that Kite had just left the world.
TBC
