【33 - Heinous Global Atrocity and the Only Ones Who Might Stop It...!】
The angry mob raised pipes and bats while eying the teenage intruders "well this time we caught ya!"
"Run!" Diego yelled to the two girls, he spun back and was the first to clear the shop.
Shouts and heavy foot-falls came after them. Amira was the fastest and quickly out of sight. Diego was determined to avoid what could possibly be a lethal beating, it wasn't until he noticed Heidi no longer beside him that he realized she'd gone up the escalator instead. He cursed, most of the men seemed to be after him. Diego jumped the legs of unconscious people, dodged mud tracks and knocked down an overflowing bin as he passed. They jumped the rubbish but someone slipped in the mud and took a bad fall. Diego rounded a corner, his eyes searching for anything that could help him. He spotted the entry to a crawl tunnel above fake grass, it said 'kids entry'. He threw himself inside and started crawling into the wall.
He couldn't hear anything over his breaths and shuffling. Maybe they ran right on by like in a cartoon. Either way Diego wasn't going to let up, he kept going straight past a few openings and finally found himself in a wide room. He jumped to the rope and slid down, but his hands were sweaty and he fell. He landed bent over while his hand broke a beer bottle. He pulled out a shard with a silent curse. It looked like a clean break at least, no little pieces in the skin. Even with his fast car and audacious demolition plan, Diego was much more of an ideas guy. He didn't like running or fighting. After hearing a scrambling noise he pushed up and ran into the hall of mirrors, cursing to himself as he tried to make it out the labyrinth. A shitty clown prop gave a dying laugh and it damn near scared the crap out of him. Diego pressed on with hands against the mirrors, trying to feel where the openings were. He left a bloody handprint smeared on the glass behind him.
Then he was out. Diego walked out a main entrance of a place called 'the Funhouse'. He looked around while squatters skulked by. Then he quickly took off down the corridor while cradling his injured hand. His heartbeat started to slow as he began to feel safer, camouflaged among the wandering crowd of hobos. I've been separated from Heidi and Amira. Fucking great. He didn't spend much time out in the city, too much crime and shady characters. Diego supposed he'd have to get used to it, and once more he went back to inwardly mourning his grandmother who'd been the only family he had. Ms Snaketail, as they'd called her, always seemed so strong and invincible even to him.
Diego washed the blood off his hand in a trickling water fountain. Then he pulled off a sock and used it to wrap the wound, it was a thin stretchable material that seemed good for it. He walked off with his right foot bare inside the sneaker. This morning and last night had been exhausting. He needed a place to sleep. Plenty of people here saw nothing wrong with just lying to the side of corridors and passing out. If that electronics-store gang or those circus freaks were out looking for him he wanted to be relatively hidden. Diego kept up his walking while considering where he could sleep. He didn't have the energy to find the girls now, hopefully they'd stay and not decide to leave without him.
He found his refuge, ironically in a big home-living store that had a whole department for mattresses and beds. Granted there were only a few mattresses and all of them had springs sticking out through the stuffing. Walking into a big store that is empty of shelves, products and lighting is an eerie sight. It's basically one huge emptiness beyond a row of unmanned cash registers. He could see all three sides of the distant walls. In the dim you could see distant lights around groups of sitting people as they lit up drugs or a fire. Diego climbed over the automatic trolly door that was broken. He walked across a vast echoey floor, crossed walkways and over to where products used to sit. He approached a few mattresses and a group of people looked up from their circle at his approach.
"…is it okay if I sleep here?" Diego was almost swaying from tiredness.
"Knock yourself out," someone responded and they turned away.
"Thanks…" Diego dropped himself down, curled up into his arm and went to sleep in that strange place.
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Across the wide space two druggies started shoving each other and yelling. Their voices echoed and Diego sat up. He looked around, the fire was going and a few others were asleep on ratty mattresses. Mostly the fight was ignored, but some people looked just to be sure nothing too crazy was going to happen. The wrestling pair of men tried a pile-drive maneuver and they both hit the ground squirming. Diego wiped his eyes and looked around, thinking about food.
"Where do I go now… do I just live here? We lost everything." If Diego didn't hunt down that lieutenant at the cost of his own life to avenge his grandmother… what was he to do? "Do I leave the city?"
"Can't leave the city, kid" said a man after opening a can of rations, he stuck his tongue into something that may have been pet food. "The city's on lockdown."
"Lockdown? We're all forbidden from leaving while the triads massacre everyone inside?" He watched the rangy guy lick the brown muck off his teeth. "Doesn't that bother you?"
The guy simply shrugged. Diego got up and left the store. He decided to check the second level in case the girls were still up there. He walked another hour with a growling stomach before seeing a crowd of onlookers. He jogged over and saw gangsters standing guard outside an empty department store. They looked out of place with their black or white suits and guns.
The dark-skinned boy blinked then asked the crowd "what's going on?"
"They just kicked everyone out and carried in this expensive-looking tube-thing…" a man with no teeth answered.
"It appeared like magic!" a young girl turned to yell; her blonde hair was filthy. "I saw it!"
"Shut up, kid."
"Tube…" Diego's eyes narrowed. At that moment a pair of familiar faces stepped into view and spotted him in the crowd.
"You! Teenage boy!" It was the conjoined twins, they were overseeing the important job. The Asian ladies approached while Diego tried playing dumb and pointing to himself. "You were with the two chosens. The General wants to give them the choice."
"Well, that sounds mysterious. I'm not sure what you're doing here but it's definitely evil. The whole city's on lockdown, the gangs are shooting each other all over the province and you're loading cargo here? What's this?"
Both of the ladies smirked. The one on the left started "well if you must know…" and her twin finished "it's an Atom Bomb."
"Huh?" the toothless squatter demanded "Why are yerr keeping a bomb here?"
Diego's expression had changed to one of shock "I thought that was only a theory."
"It was."
"Look nobody knows what will actually happen if that goes off! It could unleash a non-stop chain-reaction of explosions and be the end of the world!" Diego yelled and the crowd stared at him. "That's nuclear energy!"
"Tell us where the girls are!" a conjoined-twin shouted "or we'll have to capture you!"
"Or I could run?"
"Then how about this…" her hand caught blue energy and she pulled out a deck "kettou da."
A real Kaijudo duel against a real enemy. Diego hesitated "Okay, yoshi. If I win you let me talk to whoever's in charge of this operation!" He had a bad feeling this was all leading to something awful. Diego's own hand ignited with a smaller blue flame. The crowd stepped away and cleared space for the competitors. They walked back where there was more room and a collapsed guy was helped up, someone pulling his arm over their shoulder and carrying him out the way.
"My name is Jiwan. And this is my sister, Wanji" the head on the left said.
"Why you always got to introduce me second?" her sister snapped.
"Because I'm the oldest."
"By what, a few seconds?"
"Don't make me pinch us."
Diego shook his head as he approached the table. Shuffled his deck and set it down, when ready their shields sprang forth. After the twins added mana Diego was the first to summon.
"Zepimeteus!" His one-cost blocker swam up, its tentacles undulating.
The twins added mana "no, not that card!"
"Shut up and let me play, Wanji!"
Diego added mana and passed the turn. His opponent did the same once more. Diego summoned "Aqua Hulcus! I draw…" he added the card to his hand.
"Well lar-dee-dar. We summon Magmadragon Melgars!" The 4000 dragon had a long body with wings, it sneered at Diego's water-being with the long armguards.
"A volcano dragon?" Diego watched its sinister volcanic glow. It was a different race to the standard armored dragons.
"Yeah it's kind of our thing," Wanji replied. "Our contortionist uses terradragons, our leader with the funny head uses necrodragons and we have our magmadragons."
"We're a three-act combo" Jiwan stated.
"Four-act…" her sister corrected.
"Well lets see how you like my act," Diego whipped out a card "I summon Daidalos, General of Fury!" The skeletal pterodactyl was stooped, its back and turquoise wings buckling the ceiling above while its skull cannon-arms swished along the ground. The 11,000 demon command shrieked as the building trembled and dust sprinkled down. A couple of nervous gangsters ran over with guns in hand but the conjoined-twins waved a hand to get them to back up. The teen continued "Aqua Hulcus break a shield, ike!" The attacker whipped like water, lashing an arm-guard through a panel.
"We should also play a blocker… Revolver Fish!" An amphibious green bio-weapon landed with a thud. It had 5000. "Turn end."
No attack? Diego untapped and drew "I summon a Marrow Ooze, the Twister." The bendable creature twisted itself around with a sneer. "I sacrifice Zepimeteus so Daidalos can double-break your shields, ike!" The sea hacker was squelched as the cannon-arm moved to aim then fired.
"Revolver Fish blocks!" It jumped in the way and was vaporized.
"Aqua Hulcus, break another shield!" Wet feet platted against the floor before another shield was knocked clear. This one reformed into a trigger.
"Brain Serum means we draw two!" she added the cards "Now the fun can start, we aint afraid of your big demon! We summon Magmadragon Jagalzor!" It was a 6000 red serpent with flames leaking out its body in several places. "Magmadragon Melgars attacks, ike!"
"Marrow Ooze blocks," Diego twisted his card and it shone purple. The ooze stretched itself until blocking the way of the slithering attacker. It got clawed and the card bounced to his graveyard. Diego started his turn with confidence, he was still leading as far as shields went and had the strongest creature in play. "I play Lone Tear, Shadow of Solitude and sacrifice it so Daidalos takes out Melgars!" The grey ghost appeared then disappeared with a faint howl. Daidalos couldn't swat in the cramped space so turned its cannon-arm for another purple blast. The magmadragon cried out and burned to ash. "Aqua Hulcus break her third shield!" Water whipped into shattering glass.
"Ow!" Wanji complained.
"Suck it up," her sister scolded before they drew. "Now we tap seven to evolve Jagalzor into Überdragon Bajula!" This huge dragon ripped into the roof, it had a blood-red body while trailing a long chain it controlled with masterful hand-work. Diego could feel its heat from where he stood, he tensed and felt sweat dampening his forehead "It has 13,000 power and destroys two of your mana every time it attacks! Now Bajula, triple-break!" Its roar was a thundering groan, it swung that chain and blasted through a pillar before breaking three shields into tiny pieces. Diego fell down with a grunt. The two ladies started cackling in victory.
"Dammit, I should've known…" Diego got to one knee and coughed dust. "They criticize each other over what card to play as mana, but neither of them say anything when they didn't attack with Melgars that time… they wanted to be sure they kept at least one dragon safe for evo-bait…" he hauled himself back up. Both players were now two shields apiece. "Alright, I can still win this! I summon another Lone Tear to sacrifice so Daidalos takes out your last two shields!" The purple cannon-fire went right between the dragon's legs and hit their table. Their final shields shattered, their long raven hair fluttered in the buffering air. "Now Hulcus can-"
"Aqua Surfer sends Hulcus back to your hand!" Jiwan laughed while holding the card overhead. The surfer rode in on a wave, sweeping his board aside as Diego's liquid person was slammed back. The card popped off the table and he caught it with a frown.
"You know… two against one isn't very fair."
"Well two heads are better than one, so suck it up!" Jiwan smiled "our turn… We summon Magmadragon Ogrist Vhal!" Its grizzly face was red while its body remained hidden in a cloud of volcano smoke. "It gets power equal to the cards we're holding so for now it's on 9000. Next Bajula attacks Daidalos and you're left with three mana!" That chain whipped out, the evolution-dragon gave a rumbling growl that echoed like doom. Diego's own giant tried to defend itself in the cramped space but was wiped out. The giant chain dragged back along the ground, three cards landed in Diego's graveyard.
"Shit…"
"Aqua Surfer break a shield!" It propelled forward, doing a kick-flip as its board shattered glass and Diego quickly hid his face in his sleeve. He could hear the shards rewinding into place and he reached out for the trigger.
"Terror Pit takes out Bajula!" he exclaimed and the twins looked disappointed. An army of undead hands pulled the dragon slowly from play, as if coaxing it into death. "I charge then summon Lucky Ball. I draw two cards." The round cyber virus floated and beeped. Diego had no blockers in his hand so he needed the extra cards.
"I cast Miracle Quest so I can draw two after Ogrist Vhal takes out your last shield, ike!"
"Please please please…" Diego chanted but it was for naught. His final shield broke and it wasn't a trigger. Now neither player had any shields and her magmadragon's strength increased to 12,000. It growled while that surrounding smoke-cloud flashed orange. "Your turn!"
"I summon Zepimeteus and end."
"I draw and Ogrist Vhal increases to 15,000 power!" It flashed and its growl deepened, it felt more deadly. "Ike!"
"Zepimeteus blocks!" Diego tried to hide his panic at stopping the lethal attack. The whole mall seemed to shudder on its foundation. He took a shaky breath and drew "I summon Marrow Ooze, the Twister."
"You know, you're bound to run out of blockers." The conjoined twins both smirked, they drew "Now my magmadragon's on 18,000… ike!"
"Block!" Another terrible quake as his creature died. She's right… the moment I don't draw a blocker I'm fucking dead! Diego drew and almost gave himself a heart attack before realizing what the spell did. "…I cast Energy Stream." An underwater rainbow light surrounded him.
"Hm, okay this is fun" Jiwan admitted "Let's see if you draw a blocker this time."
First card, no blocker. Second card, no blocker. Diego almost flipped out again before realizing one of his cards was… "Aqua Hulcus…"
"Okay, one more draw." The twins tapped their foot and waited.
Diego had one mana left. He drew and gasped, almost falling onto his table "Marrow Ooze, the Twister…"
"I've had enough of your stalling! Instead of powering up my magmadragon further I'll summon Dark Clown and Amber Piercer!" The brain jackers entered play, one a 6000 blocker with a swollen red abdomen, the latter was a scurrying insect with a needle-point on its nose and 2000 power. Her dragon reduced to 12,000 "ikeee!"
"Block!" After another dramatic collision Diego solemnly drew from his deck.
"You're gonna die kid. That Hulcus can't get through my blocker!"
"Then I play another Terror Pit on your Dark Clown!" the spell flashed purple in his hand. At that moment gunshots and running could be heard. Diego hesitated before continuing "Aqua Hulcus todomeda!" The twins were bewildered as the liquid person sprinted between her creatures, it jumped and kicked her in the chest. She flew with a grunt and slid, now dripping wet. Diego packed his cards and their tables vanished.
He stepped over and peered into the shop as mobsters fled the scene "What's going on…?"
Someone rushed out and slammed into him.
"Diego!" It was Lisa, she hugged him tightly. "I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again." The dyed-haired nurse ducked her face into his neck. He felt a fuzzy warmth fill him and hugged her back.
"…how did you find me?"
"This whole city's been on world-wide news coverage. Your car was out the mall entry and it looked in bad shape. Where's Heidi? Did you rescue Amira?" Her blue eyes gazed up at him.
"We got separated. It's been a crazy twenty-four hours."
"Look out!" Lisa shouted and he turned.
The conjoined-twins had charged at him from behind only to be knocked aside by Simon. The blonde teen was armed with a long pipe. The twins hit the ground and slid. Simon stood heroically between them "I was watching you duel for a few minutes there… what is this woman…? She has two heads…"
"It looks like a congenital birth defect…" Lisa answered.
"Okay, Ms Nurse."
"We're going to destroy this whole city!" the woman roared while standing up once more, her right head looked woozy. "It's going to be beautiful! Society always called us freaks but this time we're going to wipe out this society! We won't let you brats ruin it!"
"Destroy the city?" Simon murmured "what is she talking about?"
"They have an atomic bomb in there. It could wipe everything out within several kilometres!" Diego answered.
"Oh shit…" Simon tensed when the angrier twin snarled as they attacked. He stepped aside and swung the pipe, cracking against one of the heads. The woman went down on one knee as one of her heads hung limp. "Didn't you just todomeda her, Diego? What's her deal?" They all stared.
The left head raised "That was your mistake, boy" she hissed with a smile "Wanji feels the pain of our injuries, but I'm the one who controls our body!" she quickly sprang despite her damage, grabbing Simon's wrist before he could swing with the pipe. They wrestled while struggling around in circles. The pipe dropped and the woman kicked it away.
"Go! Deactivate the bomb!" Simon yelled.
Lisa grabbed Diego's sleeve and pulled him into the store. The two ran in and looked around. Gangsters and henchmen lay dead, it was the men who'd survived in the second van during their escape. They came for me… Diego stopped and swallowed but Lisa pulled him again, over to the centre of the room. They ran over a plaster rectangle that'd fallen from the roof. The two crouched down by a long metal cylinder. It was as long as a person and thirty-centimeters thick. It had a countdown screen displaying seventeen minutes but no control panel or buttons.
"This bomb looks bigger than the charges we used…" Lisa murmured.
"It's a nuclear warhead," Diego spoke softly.
"Can you deactivate it?"
"I didn't even know it was possible to build! I…"
"Diego," Lisa reached out and put both hands on either side of his face "you're a bomb technician expert. There's nobody else in this entire city who could do this."
"Okay… okay…" he shook his head and tried to focus. "Okay… I'm going to need to unscrew that compartment-" Diego stopped. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the screw-driver his grandma gave him before climbing down the laundry chute. He unwound the sock around his injured hand and got to work. Diego quickly undid the metal and carefully removed it, he was definitely sweating now. They were reaching fifteen minutes on the timer. "So in theory… there's two canisters inside and when the counter goes off the two reactants meet under pressure and the nuclear reaction takes place… and then we all die."
"So what can you do?" Lisa was also sweating.
"I could remove the canisters and separate them… and hopefully not trigger the bomb prematurely…"
"Okay well, I don't want to rush you but we're getting down to fourteen minutes…"
"And here I go…" Diego leaned over and tried to keep his fingers steady. He worked at the tube, removing more of its exterior and inspecting the contents. He started working on unscrewing a bulky canister from one half of the bomb. After extracting it he set it down, then got to work on the other half with three minutes remaining. When both canisters were out the two watched that counter drop under thirty seconds. They walked nervously backwards. After hitting zero there was a loud spark that made them jump but then… nothing happened.
Lisa laughed and jumped at Diego, wrapping him in another hug. She pulled back then kissed him full on the mouth. Both hearts raced as they kissed, the two teens separated and stared into each other's eyes.
Diego realized "Simon!"
The pair ran back out, eyes searching urgently for their friend. Simon was slouching against a broken pillar, a bloody chunk of rubble by his hand. The conjoined-twins were slumped on the ground a few metres away. Simon raised his head at them and gave a thumbs-up.
Diego sighed in relief "we need to take at least one of those canisters so they can't rebuild it quickly."
Lisa nodded and they ran to their friend and helped him to his feet. Lisa and Diego carried a heavy canister between them, making their escape as quick as possible. It was awkward to carry that thing between them and when they reached the escalators they met a gang of squatters running up. The men paused at the sight of them and the three teens blinked.
At the bottom was Doris on her motor-scooter. "What did you do?" she scathed.
"Only saved your lives, and the lives of everyone in this city" Simon called back down.
At that moment the canister slipped from Diego's sweaty hands. Their jaws dropped as it bounced down and bowled over the squatters who all fell in a heap. There were curses, shouts and sickening thuds. Doris reversed out the way and watched as the cylinder rolled off before coming to a stop. Simon and Lisa stared at the embarrassed teen between them.
"Can we please be more careful with the nuclear material, Diego?" Simon traipsed down and they followed.
"Well… it's not nuclear since no reaction happened… might still be explosive though…" Diego stated lamely as they stepped over the mass of groaning men.
Without her mall security the overweight woman could only scowl at them from atop her mobility machine "You kids aren't getting away with this… mark my words…"
"Yeah, yeah. Why don't you go drive yourself off a cliff," Simon retrieved the cylinder and started to drag it behind him.
"Heidi…?" Diego was gazing over to the food court. He raced off and went in. A small crowd was thrashing about the blankets, and there was Heidi. The small girl was damp with sweat, eyes groggily on the ceiling but unable to focus. "Heidi! What did you do to her?" Diego sat the girl up and turned. Lisa stood and stared.
Doris whirred over with a mean smirk "Why we gave her something to quiet her down is all."
"You fucks," Diego got Heidi's arm around his shoulder and helped the limp girl to her feet. Lisa went to help but Diego stopped her "no, help Simon. We have to leave now, more gangsters could be arriving here soon."
Doris remained at the food court and watched as the teens made their slow escape. They went backwards from the path they first took yesterday, and then finally after several minutes they made their way out the crummy main entrance. Outside, beyond the granite tiles and empty shop-fronts, away from the squatters and addicts. They crossed the street, spying Diego's ruined impala that looked like it'd been stripped for parts already. Underneath a multi-storey carpark they saw the van out of sight in the staircase's shadow. Aside from the van the lot was entirely empty. Simon dragged the cylinder into the back. Diego helped Heidi in carefully and sat her up, her head was lolling.
Lisa tucked her skirt under before sitting. She leant over and checked the girl's pupils, which were huge. She clenched her wrist "Sweating, unusual heart-rate, pupils the size of dinner-plates…"
Simon snorted as he hopped into the driver's seat and strapped himself in "come on, you got to admit it's kinda funny. Heidi is high on drugs right now."
"It's so not funny!" Lisa snapped. "She's a small girl, her body might not be able to take it!"
The engine started and Diego looked between them "so we're really leaving Amira?"
"Amira would've found her way out, don't you worry about that." Simon drove off.
"Of all the guys who wanted to help us find you and the girls… None of them made it…" Lisa's head lowered.
"I owe them. I owe each and every one of them." Diego huddled into his knees as the van jostled over potholes. "But if it weren't for us… this city might not even be here right now. We should be happy about that…"
"It's thanks to you," Lisa smiled as bright as the sun. She looked like she wanted to be sitting with him and leaning close together. Instead she stayed with Heidi, arm around the girl as she slouched and blinked. Her expression was slack and mouth open, she looked… drugged.
For the next hour they talked about what they'd been up to after getting separated. Simon was mostly focused on driving but gave a comment here and there. It was dark and cold, the stars glimmered through the windshield. A silence overtook them for a while but then Lisa broke it with an important question that was just starting to occur to all of them.
"Hey guys… what's to stop them just making another bomb?"
"Nothing," Simon answered her.
"Then that means…" Diego blinked. "We have to get out of the city."
"Yes," Simon said. "I'm picking up Mr Barrow and the kids, then we're out of here. I got a few buddies I'd like to save as well… but we're not going to have enough time."
"Simon… we might not even have time for this Mr Barrow and his family" Diego said.
"We do. They live on the outskirt of the city anyway so even if a bomb does hit we'd be okay and probably have time to escape the nuclear fall-out you mentioned. If they had that" he reached back to point at the metal cylinder "then scientists could fix the bomb on site and probably get it operational in what a few hours?"
"I'd imagine so," Diego nodded.
"Well how long would it take them to make another from scratch? At least a few more hours than that. So we should have just enough time to clear the blast-zone…"
"Then hike in the wilderness... since the port city's on the other side of the province," Lisa stated.
"…Yeah. We don't have the fuel to drive that far anyway…" Simon shook his head. "Man I wish we had buses here… or petrol stations… or restaurants… maybe they should blow this place up."
"They need to fix it up, not blow it up!" Lisa snapped. "I'm still concerned about all the people living here. There's something like two million… not all of them are degenerates."
"That's true," Simon nodded "Plenty of them will be hard-working and decent. Just like Mr Barrow…"
The van drove on into the night. They were on borrowed time, it seemed their judgment day wasn't over yet.
『AN: Yeees how lucky am I? Oh yeah, and how lucky are those one million civilians who would've been casualties in a nuclear attack... but how lucky am I!? I got all my reviews from Acuma and Azure who are just now up-to-date with my last chapter. And... could it be a reviewer who isn't an author... Xander3033! Who is also a follower and favouriter! Thanks so much, I want to message you but that may be off-putting and weird. I'll leave it for now... even though you have only just started reading and won't see this for a conceivable while. You probably came from the Duel Masters discord chat? Thank you, everyone.』
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