By Chustang Sundust
--------------------------------------
Chapter 7
"No Arms to Hold Back"
June 16. 12:41
Melfina was definitely not enticed by this bloody, dark and dirty
dance called fighting. And watching the two predict each other's death
in their stormy eyes seemed to cut a certain string. It was violent and
inhuman. The android's misty brown eyes were flashing confusedly back from
the transformed Ctarl-Ctarl, a sleek and roaring white tiger, and her beloved
outlaw who stood silently, horribly sick white eyes narrowed with no emotion.
It couldn't be right…
Gene couldn't be dead…
He's right there…
…He couldn't win, she knew. Aisha was immortal.
The battle was like listening to the wind. The first charge was
a blur of predatory speed, with only the disturbed air making a noise,
and the night's darkness clearly was no hindrance. Dangerous, precise,
and silent, they both whirled back from the charge, recovering from the
wounds they had received. The blurring form of Aisha, a bitterly snarling
thing of rage and glowing power, slowed to a halt, and her body was crouched
menacingly. She was so engulfed by anger that she didn't notice the long
slash along her shoulder blade, where the bokuto had struck forcefully,
and the blood dripped silently to the ground.
Gene however came out of the dash, leaning against the arm he
had pressed to the ground, and untouched in battle. With bokuto at his
side, the redhead outlaw whirled it up to meet the blur of white and black.
The whole of Aisha's weight was pressed against it, and the tiger was slashing
wildly at the human, as she tried to stand on the bokuto. In a sudden jerk,
the blade came out beneath her, and the Ctarl-Ctarl snarled angrily at
just how strong Gene was. Her crystal blue eyes were narrowed to a glowing
slit, and in a sleek blur, she leaped down on the outlaw, knocking the
bokuto from his hands with a whip of a massive paw.
It rolled to a stop, just an inch out of his reach.
Her muzzle was gaping in anger, and her whiskers scrunched up
in a snarl. A hot wave of breath came from her, as Aisha gave a devilish
grin, pinning her forearms against his chest. Slowly, his icy white eyes
dropped the silent assassin act, and the outlaw began to feel his lungs
collapse under the force and weight exerted against him. Gene was nearly
screaming in pain; ribs were snapping.
His once dark and considering blue eyes had lost all their soul,
and were overcome with a cold mechanical tone. He gritted his teeth and
patiently waited the painfully slow onslaught out. It was impossible to
move his arms without the eyes of the Ctarl-Ctarl watching and the wicked
claws she had slashing down on them. Gene, or more correctly, the program
possessing his body, knew she could cut them like butter.
A gruff, slurred voice that came like gravel on wood mocked him.
"Game, set, match."
Melfina sudden felt something in her burst in disgust, pain, and
hatred. She began to back away from Jim, who had busied himself watching
the battle and evaluating the chances his possessed Aniki had. Gene was
weaker, slower, and more drained then the lithely primed Aisha, but a shocking
predator sense had resurfaced in him, which was greater than the white
tiger's raw power, and Jim knew it. Gene had a chance. Was that even good?
The ghostly white light weakly peering into the dark whole of
Starwind and Hawking Enterprises made her eyes distort with darkness, and
Melfina staggered back. She couldn't stand it. Gene was dying, and it was
pulling strings deep in her android heart. The stronger the emotion, the
stronger the reaction…
Every strand of her very fabric shivered with fear, and a surge
of adrenaline and fear caused her to suddenly find herself staggering out
on the streets. She was running. Melfina blinked and paused, clutching
at her throat for air, and steadied herself against the bars along the
sidewalk. Her bare feet shuffled nervously in a pool of water, which shined
in the moonlight, and her slick face turned to glance around, pale and
sickly. The cold and empty streets were disturbingly comforting.
Oh god…
Melfina crashed to her knees, breathing hard. Her eyes swirled
with darkness and her mind was consumed by that crushing force some call
depression. The android now hated emotions with all her heart, and it felt
like it was being ripped little by little in half. She hated it, and the
memories of the good emotions were thrown into the back of her mind. She
could only focus on it now, feel only the emotions she had now, and it
was unimportant to remember when it felt good when those strings were pulled.
The black-haired android suddenly gulped, and her quivering lips
formed over a few, chattering words that she knew would end the emotions.
"It was you…" Melfina gulped, "who broke my…mason plate…"
Aisha screamed. Her silky white fur was charred off in a fiery
instant, and black ash resulting from the eruption of energy. The sleek
creature was a smoky black, her fur burned, and the pads of her paws were
throbbing red with blood. The Ctarl-Ctarl was flung away from the possessed
Gene Starwind in a fuming boom of light, and her punished body collapsed
to the floor after rolling heavily. Her crystal blue eyes were drained
of their deadly light and she was struggling to raise her body, loathing
in shock, and Aisha was afraid.
From the light, where she expected a defiant and brash man to
stand, there was a bloody, shuddering body, on the verge of eternal collapse.
Gene slowly rose, after expelling the lethal tiger away with a burst of
chi. It was a sickening sight to befall them next. The explosion he had
caused was like biting on a grenade for him. Gene's hollow shell became
totally visible as the light faded.
The force Aisha had given into him had crushed more than half
of his ribs, and their jagged edges were poking sickeningly at his skin,
bleeding. He had taken damage to his hands from intense sword fighting
and they were scarred and cut up almost beyond repair. Gene's demonic white
eyes were narrowed and bloodshot, and his arm instantly went to comfort
his broken body.
"Aniki!" Jim cried suddenly. And without any arms to hold him
back, the younger outlaw rushed blindly to his brother's side and, on an
impulse, threw his arms around Gene's neck.
"Jim!" Aisha cried, in a slurring, gravelly voice as she painfully
transformed back into her human-like form. Her tanned hand extended to
him as she clawed quickly to her feet.
The cold spark of silence Jim got plus the warning from Aisha
suddenly clashed in his mind, and his arms against the familiar flesh of
his Aniki held none of its warmth. It was cold; and that's what scared
him. The blonde staggered back in fear and the ungodly white eyes locked
fiercely on him. There was no pity or mercy even considering in those icy
white things, and the possessed Gene Starwind raised a fist to knock the
annoyance away from him.
Aisha was staggering up in human form, her bleeding arm barely
withstanding her weight while the other soothed her intense burns. Her
entire body was mottled with dark burns the color of ash, marking a ghostly
scar beneath her furious blue eyes. She flickered them up once again, and
a hell of anger welled up in her again.
It became a whirl again, as the Ctarl-Ctarl leaped in an unstoppable
rage. Jim was thrown back from the intense whir of strength and screams
by Aisha's hand and she crouched angrily in front of Gene as he tried to
regain his feet. In his frosty white eyes she saw a last burst of chi building,
but she knew it was a last resort. He'd die after another explosion like
that. With a drained echo of victory making her smile, she leaped away
from a slash he administered by grabbing a long piece of shrapnel next
to him and lifting the sharp edge to her vulnerable face. Aisha was on
the brink of exhaustion, but seeing Gene trying to hurt Jim cut a deep
nerve and it bled with rage.
Gene lifted himself and rolled away quickly from Aisha's returning
slash, and it missed widely. She shrieked shrilly, and pounced onto her
prey in a roar. But her slam landed on air again, as the outlaw painfully
dodged the onslaught. Once the red and black blur paused to find his opponent
again, Jim saw his arm shoot up to his chest, where shattered ribs poked
bloodily from his skin. A knot bundled up in his stomach. The blonde nervously
looked over to the table, where Gene's old pistol, the one from the late
1980's, which was now just a piece of junk, shine in the dull light. Jim
gulped, flashing his blue eyes back to the battle. He'd shot it before,
for practice, but it seemed wrong, deep in his fabric.
I hope I don't regret this….
Jim lanced his fears in a burst of emotion, and leaped up to
grab the gun.
Meanwhile, the strain on them was doubly draining. Aisha was
constantly on the attack, and that was eating slowly away at even her,
while Gene seemed to be struggling with his injuries, but his dodging took
less energy. They were both going down the same path to the same fate,
intense shellshock and possibly death, but on different train cars. The
redhead tried desperately to put on a cold face, but the fiery pain shooting
through his entire body was rattling the installed mind, and it was obvious
the Tao Magic he had received from the poison was beginning to drain from
his veins; there was a slick red carpet along the floor, lined with hints
of vibrant green.
Aisha stood up and cornered Gene in a dark corner, snarling.
She leaped up and prepared to sent his head rolling with a sweeping kick,
when he rushed up to meet it. It came unexpected, like a blast of lightning,
and he clasped the foot easily in his torn hands and wrenched it against
his shoulder. The white Ctarl-Ctarl shriek as she was flipped over in mid
air, and thrown onto the ground with a resounding thud.
Gene smirked weakly, standing triumphantly as the groaning Ctarl-Ctarl
rolled slowly over onto her side where she promptly doubled over. The outlaw
snatched up the bokuto, blinked, and stabbed the sword into the floor and
pivoted instantly away. Only a breath later did the whirl of fury and white
realize there was no body there and she snapped her eyes up to flash her
demonic fire.
He agilely pivoted on the sword again and brandished it in Aisha's
face as she leaped short again, her long, clawed fingernails brushing against
his boots, and it cut down her ear. With a crazed howl of pain, she clutched
at the bloody ear and lunged at Gene in a burst of anger. And blinking
again, she was surprised to feel the solidity of a body beneath her crushing
slam, and it was refreshing. She had the treacherous, backstabbing bastard
at her disposal and it felt good knowing he was a toy. To be broken.
But her joy was cut short as Gene's assassin wits bubbled back
up in his battered body, and the redhead's sinister white eyes told her
in a spark of anger that he wasn't done yet. As they tumbled through midair,
he twisted violently in her grip and Aisha, unexpecting this, was shook
off. Gene impacted against the wall, ready, and pushed off to grasp the
railing on the top level. He smirked, and then swung himself over the metal.
Aisha impacted against the wall, which cracked ominously, without
reacting to Gene's escape and crumpled painfully to the floor. But her
pain didn't restrain her long before she snapped her body up to leap up.
She scrambled up to the bars just as her opponent slipped up into the rafters
of the rented apartment. Snarling, Aisha followed up.
As her demonically glowing blue eyes scanned the darkness, a
heavy silence descended upon her in a looming presence. Her panting breath
stirred up long-forgotten dust and it swirled in the light from the small
window. There was nothing there, and she cautiously glanced around. "Hello?"
she questioned the quiet softly.
"No trespassing. And next time, call first."
----------------------------------------------------------
Oh hold me now, I feel contagious
Am I the only place that you've left to go?
She cries that life is like some movie black and white
Dead actors, vacant lies
Over and over and over again she cries
Exert from Hemorrhage (In My Hands) by Fuel
----------------------------------------------------------
Jim was unable to see anything of the combatants in the dusty
rafters by the time the pistol had loaded. He gulped, and a fine sweat
made the gun slide tentatively in his fingers. The younger outlaw aimed
the barrel up at the silent rafters, looking for the one he needed to shoot.
It was going to haunt him, and he be hated for it, but a burning in her
heart told him his Aniki shouldn't lose, while all the while another part
was screaming no.
"Hello?"
His heart stopped. But his fingers unconsciously slid tighter
around the trigger.
Silence tightened his fingers until the low, secretive voice
that answered drove him just about over the edge. "No trespassing. And
next time, call first."
There was an explosion of white, and Jim yelped in fear while
it flung him forcefully back in a shower of sparks. He knew it was Gene's
last resort and it was probably fatal, but he wouldn't let it happen. The
rafter that the blast had originated from dislodged suddenly with a metal
whine, and Aisha and Gene were dragged down with it.
Jim fell back from the heat of the sparks and involuntarily pulled
the trigger.
A hand came up to wipe the blood away, and came away soaked crimson.
In disgust, the victor of the intense battle wiped it simply on the collapsed
and pinned body of the inferior. The victor leaned back from the body pinned
beneath the rafter, and it groaned in unconsciousness with all the pain.
So much… so unfamiliar… I've never lost before…
After being hit, the one who had proved weaker overall had been
too slowed from the blood loss and pain in the side to dodge the falling
beam of steel. It had crushed the pitiful thing that had to misfortune
to be in the way, that is, after the bullet had struck Aisha.
Gene stood defiantly, and his ribs snapped more, unable to take
the topping movement to the whirl he had forced from himself. The outlaw
winced, and the program in his mind began to fragment from the loss of
the diluted poison. It had been weak in the first place, and he had less
power than he was supposed to, and now it had bled mostly out. The possessed
body staggered desperately out the door, where it knew the prize had fled,
right past the shivering body in the corner.
Gene ignored the whimpering for "Aniki" and the white eyes he had were
dull and darkening slowly. He had little time left. The dark figure disappeared
into the night.
***************
Author's Notes:
As I promised, it its now officially summer. I'm right on the
note! I wouldn't have had this done if *_*EvitahA.A.'s party hadn't been
canceled out of the blue while we were partying at a black-lighted, loud
music bowling party for school. Man!!! Stupid stupid! And Anime Angel,
I can't thank you enough for your really enthusiastic reviews! Thankcu
and once again, tuson tucks (Yes, I'm Norwegian, so there!)
Chustang