Mange
Act II
(Chapter 1)
By
Mastermind (mind@eot.com)
Disclaimer:
Spawn and Related Indicia are copyright by Todd McFarlene and his army of Lawyers, I'm simply paying homage to him.
Batman Beyond and all related indicia are copyright of Time Warner and the WB, I simply like the way they got Kenny Wayne Shepherd to play the intro to their only feature film (so far) and that's why I refer to it in the intro.
Christoph © 1997-2002 Mastermind.
Powerpuff Girls and Related Indicia are copyright of Cartoon Network and Craig McCraken I simply think they have more potential then they are using now.
The intro to the show is somewhat different this season; I've decided to use a new title song. "The kids aren't alright" by The Offspring will serve as the opening song for the 2nd season. Again, if requested enough, I'll script out a opening and post it sometime! :D
"You IDIOT!" HIM grabbed Christoph by the collar, lifting him off his feet. "YOU LET MY MOST PRIZED CANDIDATE SLIP THROUGH YOUR FINGERS!?" Him threw him to the ground with enough impact to cracked the solid stone flooring. Christoph stood up, straightening his jacket and holding his newly healed left hand, making sure it was all right from the fall. "You know you really are a grouch sometimes, I've had a horrible day thanks mainly to you!"
"What was that?" HIM asked, standing and walking down from his throne.
"I mean, come on, You had me face a Hunter, which was bad enough, she cuts off my hand, and influences that bitch of a Mange you decided was your best idea…" Christoph backed up a little bit as HIM got even closer "But I mean..she's not the light warrior yet, Boss, it's still a toss up…I think she needs nurturing myself.."
"YES…Yes she does.." HIM smiled, putting a claw on Christoph's shoulder. "And you my boy can do anything, right?"
Christoph didn't answer, a feeling of uneasiness coming over him.
THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL SPICE!" HIM growled, pushing Christoph into a pillar, knocking out several of the blocks. "You're supposed to be this great Dark Warrior..HATRED flows through your veins, but yet, when you were face to face with your ex, YOU COULDN'T DO IT!"
"Yeah well, she HAD help." Christoph rubbed his arm.
"Ah, Yes, another FAILURE on your part!" HIM picked up Christoph by the neck and lifting him off his feet. "Perhaps my faith in you was misplaced. Maybe it's time for you to go back to basics for a while."
Christoph's eyes widened "Now wait just a damn min—" Christoph was cut off as his very existence faded from HIM's presence.
"Hmmm.." HIM dusted his claws and picked up the blade hilt Christoph had dropped on this level of Hell."Now who can I get as a replacement…?"
Cue the TITLE (Original for now, not the one listed aboveJ)
Buttercup leaped left and right, dodging shots from his laser, landing behind a piece of heavy machinery.
"You will never be defeating me!" Mojo Jojo yelled, turning his fire to Blossom as she maneuvered towards him. "Mojo Jojo will not be defeated by the likes of you two!"
"Tell us where she is!" Blossom landed behind Mojo and kicked him in the small of the back, sending him flying forward, his gun clattering to the floor in front of Buttercup.
Buttercup eyed it, and then vaporized it in an instant with her laser beams, running forward and kicking Mojo in the jaw, sending him into a control panel in the background, where they both followed.
"I am not yet defeated!" Mojo pulled out a remote and pressed a button, a large metal stomping come from behind them, and before they could turn, they were sent flying in opposite directions.
Buttercup landed hard into the wall, leaving a lasting impression of her body, stunning her.
Blossom landed in a vat of acid, and jumped out right away, leaving some of her clothing smoking and absent from particular parts of her body.
"Good. Now go my mechanical jojo, destroy them!" Mojo moved a joystick on the remote, having it go after the still stunned Buttercup.
Blossom shook off the burning feeling on her body, and began healing, swearing a few times. Gasping, she noticed the giant jojo moved towards her sister, it's claws snapping and it's treads rumbling the laboratory.
"Not so Fast…" Blossom began, then remembered her sisters weren't there to complete the phrase, she ran towards Mojo, smashing into him hard, knocking the remote to the floor. Mojo growled and began to get up as Blossom grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up towards her."Where is Bubbles?!"
Mojo simply cackled and pointed behind her.
"Wha—" Blossom turned in time to see a large claw hit her, sending her flying into an adjacent room, landing with a sickening impact.
"Ha! You are now rendered unconscious! " Mojo got up, running towards the room and pulling down a large lever, sending a set of laser bars down, imprisoning Blossom inside.
"Hey, Monkey boy!" Buttercup yelled, flying into Mojo from behind, knocking him to the side, pulling the lever off with him. "Damn!"
Mojo turned around to face Buttercup, a large gun in his grasp, and opened fire on her. Buttercup dodged the fire the best she could, a few shots finally hitting her and sending her flying backwards into the stationary robo-jojo. Buttercup moved to attack, but was caught in the arms of the metal beast, and struggled to even move from it's grasps, it's construction seemingly impossible to break.
"Ahhh Good, now that you are comfortable, I shall behold you to my greatest triumph!" Mojo cackled and watched as they struggled to get out of their confines.
"Wait till I get out of this you furry lil freak!" Buttercup screamed as she strained against the clamps.
"That won't be happening any time soon, those are Duranium, and even your strength won't help you now!" Mojo cackled again and walked over to a control center, pushing a few buttons.
The doors behind him opened slowly, revealing a shadowed room and a lonely figure standing in it, or rather, leaning on a nearby wall.
"Behold, Mojo Jojo's greatest achievement…" Mojo grinned at them both, and smiled as both of the girls looked on in horror.
"NO!" Mange snapped her eyes open, sitting up and backing up to a nearby wall, her chains shooting out randomly and smashing things. Panting and glancing around, she got a hold of her emotions and began to retract her chains, sending the needed mental commands. She realized that she was in the church she had deemed her lair, an old abandoned church.
Mange walked out to what was once a doorway and looked out amongst the streets, watching as the sunset in the distance, she smiled. The street lights began to pop on one after another. She stepped back a moment, making sure her body was not hit by fading sunlight, she had this gut instinct to stay away from it, and she had learned by now that instincts were something she needed to follow if she were going to survive this.
"I just wish I could figure out these damn dreams…" she kicked over a pew and turned her back to the door, walking back into the darker parts of the church.
Blossom sighed as the doctor left the hospital room, standing up and pulling her blouse on she grunted as she felt her bruised ribs complain to her again. " I must be getting old…" she sighed "I'm not healing as fast as I used to.."
"But you're still as pretty as that little girl with the bow.." a voice said from behind her.
Blossom turned and looked for it's source, smiling as she found it. An middle-aged lady with graying black hair stood in the doorway, a cane at her side. " Ms. Keane, what are you doing here?" Blossom ran to her and gave her a hug, grunting again.
"Checking up on you, and with good reason it seems…" Ms. Keane said, helping Blossom to the bed in the hospital room.
"I'll be fine, it's you I worry about." Blossom looked at her.
"Don't worry about me, I survived the war, I'll survive the horrors of getting old.." Keane said, sitting in a nearby chair." I heard on the news you ran into another old friend of yours…"
"I wouldn't call it a friend…" Blossom shook her head.
"Any idea who it was?"
"No idea, I gotta get back to the station, I can do better there then in this bed." Blossom said, standing and grunting, less this time.
"I don't suppose a lecture could stop you?" Keane smiled, knowing the answer already.
Blossom smiled as well, leaning over and giving her a hug.
"I didn't think so, " Keane returned the hug, " Just be careful…"
"I will, Mom.", Blossom said, helping her to the door, "You too."
Blossom walked down to the end of the hall to begin an express checkout of herself.
Walking out of the hospital, she hailed a cab and got in, "TPD HQ, and run the lights.." she said, flashing her badge to the cabby.
Christoph held his head, looking around, he noticed he was laying on a large pile of skulls. He looked around and noticed numerous red eyes glaring at him from all around, all of them in the darkness.
"Oh great, the term 'back to square one' comes to mind right now.." he stood up, searching himself for his saber.
"Ohhhh Christoph…always so witty…" HIM hissed, his position unknown to Christoph.
"You gotta have a sense of humor if you're in Hell…" Christoph turned around, searching for the source, still checking his pockets for his weapon.
"Looking for..THIS?" a familiar hiss and humming of his Hell Forge blade rang in the air.
Christoph turned sharply and saw HIM standing on a nearby floating chunk of rock, lava bubbling around him.
"Come and get it, if you can."
Christoph leaped upwards, reaching 4 times his usual jumping height, landing on a nearby rock."This is so hokey.."
"Sharp tongued as always..AREN'T YOU!?" HIM thrust his claw forward, sending Christoph hurling backwards with an unknown burst of Force.
Christoph grunted and kicked a few times as he hung off the edge of the rock he was on, lava biting at his legs and shin guards, he back flipped almost impossibly back onto the rock, taking a defensive stance." 'Ohhhh look at me, I'm the source of all evil'", Christoph mocked HIM, "Can't even knock me down.."
"I'll do more then that!" HIM growled back at Chris, leaping towards him, a light blade shining in his claw.
Christoph side stepped him and smiled, making a series of motions and shouting "Ole`!"
HIM surged with anger, the pure hatred radiating off him reflected it's self in the environment, the ground beneath them quaked, sending Christoph off balance and hurling towards another chunk of rock, landing hard.
"Temper, Temper.."Chris grunted, looking around as he got his bearings.
"You've troubled me for the last time.." HIM growled, leaping down to his level and walking towards him.
"Somehow I doubt that.." Christoph smiled as he saw a glimmer from his Saber HIM had taken back from him. "In fact I feel things about to even out…" Chris reached forward towards HIM, and seconds later the handle of the saber flew towards him and into his hand. Christoph flipped backwards and stanced, saber igniting and a glowing red blade illuminating his facial features.
"Oh please…" HIM pushed his claws towards Chris and sent him flying, his blade falling into the pits below. "You're good material, Chris, and I hate to waste good material…" HIM walked over and picked him up by the neck, choking him slightly.
Chris flailed, kicking at him as much as he could.
"Now, I'm going to give you another chance, but this time you're on your own." HIM growled, putting his nose to Chris'. "Don't Fuck this up."
Chris blinked at HIM a few times, before he realized he was back on the ground again."I get the blade, right?"
"What part of 'You're on your own', isn't sinking in?" HIM growled, his eyes turning red as if on fire."Now GET GOING!" HIM did a roundhouse kick to Chris' chin, sending him flying upwards out of the bowels he called home.
Smiling, HIM levitated to a higher level of Hell and sat in his chair, kicking a few slave girls left and right. "Now everything should still be on schedule, if only that monkey holds up his…or rather..HER part of the bargin…"
"Come on already!" a male voice whispered from the side alley near a building. A sign overhung on it read "Bob's TV and Chocolates".
"Almost, GOT IT!" another voice whispered, followed by the sound of a door swinging open. "We're in, come on it's time to go shopping..."
A pair of ski masked men wandered into the poorly lit poorly conceived business, snickering with glee as they began to pick and chose their booty.
"Man, this is better then Christmas, check this stuff out!" one pointed towards a rather large 72 inch television "I say we take that.."
"Great idea, YOU carry it..." the other thumped him in the back of the head "Now think normal, we just need some of this stuff, not all of it. Grab the Sony stuff and let's get going!"
The two continued, taking VCR's, Stereos and DVD players out the door, careful to look around making sure no one was the wiser to their midnight after hours shopping.
"Last run.." the smarter of the two grabbed a handful of VCR's and headed towards the door, halfway there realizing that he had too many. "Fool, come over here, grab some of these.."
No response.
"Larry?" he raised an eyebrow, stumbling towards the door.
"Dammit if you're looking at the playboy again…I swear to god.." he stepped a few steps closer and was pushed back from his feet, landing with several foreign VCR's on him, causing him to howl.
Pushing them off of him, he rolled over and began to get up "Larry what the hell is…"
He stopped dead in his tracks, and stared at the area in front of him. A dark cloaked figure stared him down with pulsing green eyes, its clothing swaying in the midnight air that rushed in.
"Cash or Credit?" the voice said in a husky female tone, slamming his face into the nearby wall and tossing him through the doorway into the side of their van.
"Holy shit…" he said, panicking and looking around for a crude weapon or at least a shield." Larry! It's her! It's the shadow!"
"The Shadow?" Mange scoffed, walking towards him still. "Do I look like a radio show? Or a Baldwin Brother?" She sent one of her chains towards him, smashing and breaking his hand and a few fingers. She smiled as he cried out in pain.
"Don't kill me!" he cried out a bit louder, backing up. "Don't kill me!!"
"If I wanted to do that, you wouldn't have had the chance to scream.." Mange's eyes moved into a sinister grin. "I want you to do something for me…"
Horrified, the man looked at her; the only thing he could focus on was her glowing green eyes.
"I want you to tell people about me." Mange picked him up with a couple of her chains. "Let them know that crime has another enemy."
He squirmed in her grip, unable to reply.
"Think you can do that, Slick?" Mange asked, pulling him towards her some more.
All he could muster was a vigorous nod, before she dropped him.
Walking off, she couldn't help but feel a bit god-like, her chains rattling as she walked, her boots echoing on the pavement.
"W-who are you?!" he finally asked, holding his throat.
She stopped, and turned her head towards him, her eyes igniting with green light, again slanting in a fierce grin. "I'm Bu…" she stopped herself, and racked her brain for a better name then the one she was about to utter. Only one word came to mind.
"Mange." She said with a husky tone, turning and walking away, she began to blend in with the shadows of the dead end alley.
As he finally stood up, he began to shake uncontrollably, as distant sirens became closer until finally shouts of police officers filled his ears. He ignored their orders, filtering them out; he just kept uttering the name he had been charged to repeat to others – Mange.
To Be Continued after feedback is given.
