Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the "Sailor Moon" series. This goes along the lines of the original series, but an alternate dimension. Trust me, eventually, my knight will meet the scouts. Patience is a virtue, so awaiting that moment won't be so bad. REVIEW!!
Chapter 13
Adieu! Raven's Last Stand
~ Abandoned Warehouse ~
"Deck the walls with boughs of entrails….ya….da….da….daaaa, ya….da…. da….DAAH!" Raven was singing off-key, throwing some fresh intestines and shredded guts from her sharp fingernails at the dingy walls. Mark was standing near a pile of something at the moment, a mass of red pulp, all guts and entrails. When Raven looked at him, he'd grab at the bloody pile and throw it to her. It had been like this for a few hours, Raven enjoying every solitary moment of the bloody decoration. She was even going so far as to lick the blood off her fingers or rubbing it on her own body to tell Mark to lick it off.
'I love humans….they are so easy to control….Hah, those Galaxy Knights don't stand a chance against my house of horrors. Once the pile it gone, I can start setting up all my toys….Oh Xeno, you'd be so proud of the slaughter….the delicious ecstasy of it all, makes me hot all over, yeah.' She thought, touching herself in sexual ways, Mark not even reacting. He was still as mindless as ever, watching and waiting obediently like trained pooch.
"Mark….I won't need you right now, I need you to start the plan….lure the beautiful white one to the arcade with his friends, life or death matter must be stressed….and secrecy. Understood?" she told him, getting another mess of sloshing intestines tossed into her grip.
"Yes, Mistress. It will be done." He told her, walking towards the exit. "Try to bring that boy from the arcade with the delightful sunglasses as well. Get them back here by sundown. Then the games can begin….my precious slave." She called out, smacking the intestines wetly against a window.
"Yes, Mistress." Mark said quietly, a smile on his face as he left the warehouse and headed for Stephen's house in the blue of night.
~ The Tsukikage Household ~
"You're being lazy again, Stephen."
"Shut up….I'm trying to read."
"Lazy brat…."
"Shove it up your hole, pussy cat."
"Rude, lazy brat…."
"Do you want to know how being hung feels?"
"Nasty, rude, and lazy brat…."
"You're just going to keep adding words onto 'brat,' aren't you, Cyrus?"
Cyrus gave Stephen a smug look, Stephen giving him a dirty look and shoving his attentions back into the book he was reading for relaxation. He hated Cyrus more and more the longer he was around the talking cat, his high and mighty know-it-all attitude made Stephen seriously ill. He was just a teenager, not a super hero type.
He had been playing it by ear the entire time and didn't like fighting anymore. It just seemed like it wasn't doing them any good, more Dark Universe warriors and royalty would probably be brought against them, Cyrus had said there were plenty of them. Stephen was starting to feel like he wasn't really doing anything but antagonizing more violent repercussions. Not that he found the Dark Universe being very serious with their latest general to take down Earth, the sadistic princess Raven.
She was always showing up where Stephen and Lamont were, screwing herself up by sending others, just like Viper had, to do her dirty work. "Why can't they just flat out come at us so we can know more about our enemy this time, not rely on luck and bothering Lady Glamour for help when things get rough. Why can't things be a bit less….God, time consuming.' He thought, yelping and kicking out when Cyrus scratched his leg.
"You're being a pain again, cat. Its practically midnight….let me catch up on my reading before I pass out," Stephen griped, smacking Cyrus away before rubbing his leg," You tore my jeans. I've had these for a good three years and you rip them. Cyrus, I'm not a super psychic evil detector! I can't go outside every damn night because you say so. Stop bothering me….huh?"
Cyrus looked braced for a kick, but Stephen looked past him, towards the 'tinking' noise coming from his window. He waited a moment, staring, and it came again, from a small pebble being pelted at his window. 'Can't be Angie, she'd throw something bigger…..wonder who's doing that. Lamont maybe….' He thought, getting off of his bed to approach the window. As he opened the window and peered down he got hit with a small rock in the center of his forehead.
"Yow!" Stephen yelped, nearly falling flat on his rear from the shock. The rock had fallen swiftly from his head to the ground, leaving a red welt on his forehead. Stephen rubbed it as he cautiously went back towards the window.
"Stephen, so sorry. Didn't see you till it was too late. Sorry." It was Mark voice, a bit bland at the moment, but it was still Mark….in his backyard. It had been a long time since Mark had even been near their house. Stephen was still in shock when he started staring down at him.
"Mark? What are you doing here?" Stephen asked, still rubbing the thin welt on his forehead.
"I'm in trouble, Stephen, I need your help. I can't go home or anything. I'm so scared. Please Stephen, my life depends on you being there for me….and your friends. I heard you have made some very strong friends." Mark was saying, his tone almost pleading.
'Mark is in trouble? What could he have done, he's the nicest guy in my entire class….without the quirks. It must real serious about this to ask me….and not his parents.' He thought.
"What's wrong? Tell me how we can help. I'd do anything for you man, you're my friend." Stephen called down, both hands firmly propped on the windowsill. Mark looked a bit pensive about that, glancing to his left and right a few times then behind himself before looking back up at Stephen.
"It's complicated. I just need you to meet me at the arcade tomorrow, with your friends after school. I can't see you in school, it's too dangerous for me to be seen there. They'll get me. Please Stephen, you have to promise that it'll just be you and your friends, no one else can know where I am. Not even my parents. Please!" Mark said, practically begging as he clasped his hands together.
Stephen felt sorry for Mark from the start, and then he got angry. Someone was trying to hurt his childhood friend, his best friend before he became a Galaxy Knight. To hear this filled him with rage, he wouldn't stand for such a thing.
"You got it, Mark, we'll help in any way we can. Don't you worry about a thing." Stephen told him, feeling better when Mark looked hopeful and smile.
"You don't know what this means to me, Stephen. You'll never regret this. I promise," he said, then seemed to hear something," I have to go. See you at the arcade tomorrow. Don't be late."
With that, Mark ran out of the yard and soon was gone, leaving Stephen staring after him. Stephen swiftly shut the window and went for his phone. "What are you doing?" Cyrus asked, now sitting on Stephen's bed.
"I'm calling up the knights, nitwit. He said bring my friends….and he's my friend too. I have to help him, he doesn't deserve to be afraid. He's a good guy." Stephen snapped, dialing up Ray's number.
"Hmph, if you were this enthusiastic about your destiny as a Galaxy Knight, we'd be set. You two must have been real close." Cyrus commented snidely, curling up to sleep. Stephen ignored him as Ray's sleepy voice answered the other line.
~ Haitsuchi's Arcade Heaven ~
Stephen was walking alone, thankfully. Angie had gotten the phone call last night, but she had gotten in a fight with a girl, of all people, and was being reprimanded by the principal. She would be maybe a couple minutes late at best, but Lamont had already left school before anyone else. The students always cleared a path for him, especially the girls. The guys were too scared stiff of him for decking a cop, not knowing Lamont didn't really feel very proud of that event.
Ray, he'd just have to wait and see about Ray, he went to a private school for the military, there was no way he'd know if Ray was on his way unless he was at least 500 feet away to tell him on the wrist radio. The beeping range was practically infinite on those things, allowing the others to home in on the signal once activated. Stephen had had a miserable time fixing his after he nearly crushed it on Princess Iona's head.
Stephen sighed, content with being perfectly alone, not talking cats or crazy girls riding his ass about things he didn't want to hear about. All that matter to him right now what Mark's safety.
When the arcade came into view he felt a little better, but as he got closer, his steps slowed and his blood ran cold. 'Blood….and broken glass….Mark? Did whoever's after him found him? Oh God no!' Stephen's mind screamed. He got down on his hands and knees, ignoring the glass he would scrape against and the blood puddles he'd wade through. He kept his icy blue eyes trained on the shattered door, blood and torn clothing hanging on it.
He angled his head in slightly, nearly retching at the sight within the arcade. The games, all neat and tidy in their places, were stained with bodies and blood. Torn sinew littered the café with severed heads leaking out spurts of puss and eyeball socket meat. The eyes were crammed inside the bubble gum and candy machines. A shadow moved behind one of the games, but then it disappeared, the wet sound of footsteps in blood. All Stephen could do was stare and shiver.
'The place is a slaughter house….who the hell did this insanity….wait….this all looks recent, the blood is still flowing from the bodies. This must've happened several minutes ago. How could they kill all of those people so fast?' he thought, an involuntary shudder running down his spine.
"Stephen….Stephen, help me….Stephen…." said a weak voice, a bit bubbly too, like water was the person's mouth. 'Or blood….that's Mark's voice. I have to go in there….to check for survivors. I'll transform if Mr. Psycho shows up and tries to fillet me too.' He told himself, creeping as quietly as he could through the shattered door and into the arcade littered with gore.
"I must be insane to do this alone. I should at least wait for the others….why am I doing such a stupid and foolhardy thing? Ah, friendship….good enough reason to get my butt knifed to death." He whispered, getting up to walk in a low crouch.
The metallic smell of the blood was getting to him. He's never smelled so much in one place. His stomach kept telling him to chunk his lunch and breakfast all over the floor, but his mind willed it away. The carnage was too much to handle, even for him. He'd killed monsters and seen his own body burned, bashed and cut by them in turn, but this was downright eerie. It was if the killer had a sick sense of humor. A head stuck in the CD jukebox with CD's jammed in its eyes, mouth and ears and then there were the entrails he could now see spinning within and over the rim of the vomiting blender.
'I'll never have another milk shake in my lifetime again. That sickola….Oh man, look at this.' He thought banefully.
The counter, littered with heads missing their eyes had candy pieces shoved where the eyes should have been, still leaking out a yellowish red mix of pus and blood. Stephen made a groaning sound as he looked away from it, only to get a full view of headless corpses lined up in the booth with utensils jammed in their chests.
"This is gross….thank God Alan isn't among them. He always wears that dirty apron and the same shirt to work. I don't see his body. He might be all right….Oh no, Gary. Gary was going to be here….No, I didn't see his body either, calm down, Stephen, calm down. Their bodies and Mark's aren't among these. Calm yourself and look for them….and above all don't touch anything or they'll think you did this." He whispered to himself, steeling himself as he moved from booth to booth to look for the three young men.
~
Ray and Angela were practically running like mad men to get to the arcade, but they knew they were at least five blocks away. Ray had been kept after to discuss college futures with his commander and Angela got detention. Lamont had told them he had to get something from home and would take a taxi, ready to meet them a block away just to be fair.
Ray felt terrible that he was so late, but college was important to him. If he did well he'd get on a good law enforcement team and be able to do good things for good people and stop evil with the law on his side.
'Maybe then Angie would notice me….if she wasn't so blindly in love with Stephen. He doesn't even care about her the way I do. He never would, he said so himself. Ah, keep dreaming, girls like Angie are impossible to catch with normal charms and such.' He thought, casting her a sidelong glance.
She was truly beautiful, her hair like a river of orchids flowing through the midnight sky. She was lean, muscular, and smooth as silk in his eyes, a powerful beauty if he ever saw one. It was a shame she loved for the wrong reasons.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Ray skidded to halt with Angie as their wrist communicators went off, Stephen's voice fizzling out of them. He sounded scared, no, downright terrified.
"Stephen? This is Ray? What's wrong? You sound like you've seen a ghost." Ray spouted into the communicator.
"I…..ever seen….uch death. Everyone…..de….d. Dead, all of…..em. I….still looking….or ….ary, Mark, an….Al….n. Call….the police….lease, call ….em now!" said the voice, crackling in and out of both young knights hearing. When Ray tried asking Stephen to repeat himself, all he got was static, not even a single beep.
"Our leader is in trouble again. There's a payphone at the end of the street here. I'll call and you run ahead and contact Lamont. He probably heard that too if Stephen got both of us to hear him on ours. It must be a terrible sight or something. The faster we get the cops there, the faster we can help them. Go Angie….," Ray commanded, getting a stubborn look from Angela," Stephen might die if you put yourself into bitch mode. You don't want that and neither do I, so go!"
After a slight pout, Angela ran ahead of him and disappeared down the next block, leaving Ray to run for the payphone. He could hear Angela yelling into her communicator by the time he got enough change in the phone to call for help.
~
Stephen quietly moved around the arcade, ducking behind games and pinball machines whenever he heard a noise. He actually preferred the noises to the deafening silence that seemed to suffocate the entire place. He was the only bit of life he'd found for the few minutes he'd been there, no sign of Gary or Alan, let alone his friend Mark. It was if he was the last one alive.
He'd managed to send out a distress call to his friends, he had heard Ray's voice. The message had gotten through, that was all that really mattered. Now Stephen had to concentrate on finding his other friends before the killer in question found them or him.
As he moved towards the back room, the boxes that lined the hallway towards it were now stained with entrails still uttering out bile and urine and slick with fresh blood. Stephen stood stock still as he took the sight in, seeing that the door had been scratched at heavily, but stood firmly at the end of the box lined hallway. A bloody trail that looked as if something had been dragged through it led to the door went from where Stephen stood to under the door.
He stared long and hard at it, wondering what atrocities might be behind it. His friends all pinned to the wall, stripped of their dignity and insides? Maybe their heads cut off and handing from the ceiling like grotesque piñatas?
'No, don't think about it….the door is still on its hinges, no holes. Whoever's in there might be all right. Move, Stephen, move!' he scolded himself, taking a step.
CRASH!!
Stephen let out a horrified scream when the noise reached him, vibrating in his entire body as the shock hit him. He whirled around, panting like mad, eyes wide with fear….and wanted to smack himself for being scared of the blender hitting the floor.
"God….you're worse than a hammy actor in a horror movie. Get grip and get out of the nuts line of sight, wherever he is." He mumbled, catching his breath as he slowly turned back around. Then he stopped, hearing a soft rustling by the café. He turned back around and walked towards it, quietly and deftly, barely breathing in fear it was the killer.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when Mark popped up from behind one of the bodies, soaked with blood and half-smiling. "Mark? Mark! Oh God, you're all right….I thought….hey, I looked over there. How come I didn't see you?" Stephen gasped, putting his hand to his heart.
Mark just smiled and began to walk through the aisle in between the booths. Stephen didn't like how he was looking at him, grinning slightly and wobbling as he walked. 'Might be shock….' He thought.
"I was hiding….to wait for you. I was waiting for you, Stephen. Heh, heh." Mark said in a dreamy, sing song voice. Stephen took a step back when Mark rounded the corner, and began walking towards Stephen. Stephen's eyes widened when he saw his friend was holding a knife.
"I was waiting for you. She said you'd come….and she wants you. She wants to make you hers." He was saying, lifting the knife up like he was a robot. Stephen held his hands up and backed away further.
"Who's she? Mark, put the knife down….come on, stop fooling around. Please, Mark, we're friends." Stephen yelped, jumping back as the knife slashed at him. He went back so far he rammed into the Lady V video game.
'Trapped….shit. What the hell is wrong with him?' his mind screamed as Mark got closer, the blood soaked blade reflecting in the icy depths of his eyes.
"She wants you…. For your beauty and your power. She'll make me beautiful too once she gets you, she promised. All for Raven, for the glory of the Dark Universe, I'll bring you to her. Then we can be friends forever….the world will be ours." Mark said, chuckling.
'Raven….she got him. God no!' Stephen thought, shutting his eyes when Mark was only a few feet away.
Then the scream came, but it wasn't his own. It's was Mark, followed by a loud shout and bodies hitting the ground. Then he felt hands touch him, a soft muffled voice reaching him at last to get his eyes open.
"Stephen? Stephen come on, get up!" Gary said, yanking Stephen to his feet and pulling him along. By the time Stephen got his eyes to focus again, he heard a door slam and the lock being slid in place.
Gary was slumped next to it, looking in the worst condition he'd ever seen the young man in. His hair was fine, but it was littered with blood. The rest of him was too, the blood stains a darker red on his red jacket, but his jacket was very tattered. His left sleeve was torn to shreds, and for the first time Stephen saw how slender his friend's arm was, and how bloody. There were bandages wrapped all around it. His sunglasses were cracked, but still covered his eyes, his head looking down at his blood-stained hands. He looked like he'd been through a war zone.
Stephen crawled up to him, laying his hand on his panting face. Gary flinched and finally looked at him, giving off a sheepish smile.
"He was going to kill you….I had to….do something. He nearly killed Alan." Gary mumbled, lifting one hand," I had to stab him. He's the one that brought that woman….who did this."
He never sounded so weak in all the time Stephen had known him. "You did the right thing. Mark isn't mark anymore….he won't be until he gets help. Alan….he hurt Alan too? Where is he, Gary?" Stephen asked, dropping his hand onto Gary's shoulder. The other young man winced, making Stephen pulled his hand back to find blood all over his hand.
"He's laying in the bathtub. He was hurt pretty bad. I came in during that woman's rampage. She went after Alan at that point, saying she wanted me, that I was a beautiful man like the white and red-headed boy. I guess she meant you and Lamont. Last thing I remembered before I got in here was Mark guy had stabbed Alan," Gary breathed, rubbing his arm across," I bandaged him up, but he's lost a lot of blood. The phone's are dead too….I was trying to get out to use a pay phone….but then you showed up. I thought it was that woman coming back for me."
"Gary….My God, this is all my fault." Stephen mumbled, lowering his head sadly.
"Your fault?" Gary echoed," You didn't tell that woman to kill those people and hurt Alan. She was doing it on her own….I don't even thing she was human. She just appeared behind Mark when he came in a flurry of raven feathers. Don't blame yourself….you didn't do this…..Argh, she did."
"I didn't mean it that way. You said yourself she was after us….I feel responsible for….what's out there. There was so much blood….and gore. Just to get at us, she destroyed all of those lives." Stephen sighed, looking up pitifully at Gary. He felt Gary squeeze his hand, a weak smile crossing his face.
"Don't beat yourself up over it, me and Alan are beat up enough already. Oh….Nearly lost my arm to that guy….with a cheese grater. I don't know what that woman is, but she really turned that Mark into a crazed killer. I know….you said he was your friend earlier….but no normal human does that to people. Not by a long shot…Ow….God, it hurts." Gary gasped, gritting his teeth as another eave of pain hit him. Stephen just nodded, smiling at his friend.
Knock! Knock!
Both young men jumped in place when the pounding erupted on the door. They looked at each for moment, then jumped again to stand when the pounding came again. Gary looked around and grabbed up a chair, wincing from the pain in his shoulder. Stephen grabbed up one too when the pounding became a ramming noise, the lock bending a bit from each hit. When the door flew open, both young men charged the screaming figure in his school uniform.
'School uniform? God, that's Lamont!' Stephen realized, but Gary didn't slamming the chair right for Lamont's shocked face. Luckily, Lamont ducked and hit the floor as Gary's chair hit the doorframe.
"Gary! Its Lamont! Quit it! It's Lamont!" Stephen shouted, stopping Gary from swinging his fists at the startled young man.
"Sorry….I've had a rough day." Gary said sheepishly, slumping down in his rear, tired and defeated looking.
"Lamont? How'd you get inside? Did you see Mark?" Stephen asked his friend.
Lamont just looked like he was concentrating on breathing. "No….but there was a message painted on the Lady V game….I didn't touch anything, that place looks like a horror villain took a chainsaw to it. What the hell happened here? Gary? Stephen?" Lamont asked, his voice a little shaky. If it was from the sight of the arcade or almost getting his face smashed in by a chair, Stephen couldn't tell, and for that matter didn't care. "Let's just say it had something to do with a lady in black. Did you guys call the cops? Alan got stabbed, Gary too, they're the only survivors." Stephen told him, keeping his eyes more on the door than anything else.
"Yeah….Angie said Ray called them. They're both outside, watching my back. There's nothing out there but dead bodies. The cops should be coming soon….but maybe we should get Alan and Gary out of here…in case whatever did this returns." Lamont put in, gesturing at Gary.
"Yeah, you're right….you up to it, Gary?" Stephen asked, getting a weak nod.
"Ok….come on, Lamont….you help Gary get Alan and I'll check to see if the coast is still clear. Just in case Mark hid from you when you came in like he did with me." Stephen replied, only half lying. The two young men bought it and Gary led Lamont to the bathroom. Stephen left the room, picking his chair back up as he walked back into the arcade area. He kept his eyes shooting in every direction, ready to smash anything with a knife that got in his way.
When nothing came, he walked over to the Lady V game, his eyes still darting every which way. As he crept closer, he could see the message written in blood and pus. "That's inventive….yuck….now it says….:
Dear pretty ones,
If you want to see alive ever again, you'd best meet us at Pier 24's old mattress warehouse on Saitama Street. If you value his life, get there in a hour, or all bet are off. Sacrifice yourselves to the Raven….." Stephen read aloud, gulping to hold back the vomit that had been trying to break loose the entire time.
"This is bad….she's going to kill him if we don't show….I have to stop her….like this, if that's what she wants. Once Mark is safe…..Ow….huh?" Stephen swore, interrupted by scratching at his shin.
"Cyrus?" he squeaked.
"Shh….Gary and Lamont are coming out with Alan. I'll tell the others….just leave them with me. I won't stand a chance against Raven and whatever she's plotting….the least I can do is keep an eye on those injured young men." The cat said, shutting up once Lamont and Gary came out carrying Alan's bloodied and sleeping form.
~ The Abandoned Warehouse ~
"I think it was mistake to leave Cyrus to guard those two….Alan looked half-dead. So many stab-wounds. I can't believe Raven made Mark do that….she ruined his life…." Stephen grumbled, pushing on the chained doors that were between them and the inner sanctum of the warehouse.
"Raven is a Dark Universe princess, man, like Viper was the prince. They had more powers than their monsters did, and she seems to like turning men into monster slaves. We just have to weaken mark when he gets transformed and free him, then we hit Raven." Ray said, determination filling his husky voice. Angela actually nodded in agreement for once as Lamont came to aid Stephen with the chains.
"He's right, Snowflake, for a brute, he's right. Raven hasn't changed tactics all this time….and she thinks she's just getting a bunch of normal humans with a lot of energy. She has no idea who she's fucking with. We'll stop her….and we'll have the last laugh." Angela crowed, a wicked gleam filling her eyes.
Lamont just shook his head and kicked the handles on the doors, the lock holding the chains to them groaning and shuddering under the great force of the hits.
"I think she's smarter than that, all be psychotic, she's not dumb. What about all of those people she took out from under our noses Cyrus went off about? I think we've got more than just mark to worry about. She's not Viper….and you told me he suck a giant killer plant on you all along with himself. No, I bet she's got something more planned. She called us out, she's going to play for keeps. All I'm saying is we should be ready for anything." Lamont uttered, giving the lock and handles one final kick before they cracked the doors falling inward very slowly.
The audible creak in the doors as they did so made everyone shudder. "Now I'm really worried." Lamont croaked, holding his ring hand tightly as he crept into the darkness of the empty warehouse. Stephen followed him, taking note of how soft the ground was, how very squishy it sounded and felt. Stephen nearly choked on the rotten smelling air, making him wonder what the hell died in this place to make it smell so bad.
He felt cold droplets falling on his head, sticky too, but he just wiped at them, not being able to see in the dark building. "God, this place is worse than a slaughterhouse in the sun. What the hell is that stench? Smells almost like sun dried road kill." Ray gagged, Angela joining in his displeasure.
"Why….it's the smell of my victory, pretty ones! Ah ha ha hah ha haaaa!" Raven's voice crooned, light suddenly filling the place, letting each young person's eyes take in the horrific sources of the terrible stench.
Bodies….there were bodies everywhere. The walls were laced and drooling out entrails and gutted bodies were hanging from the rafters like sickly marionettes. Blood was raining down upon their heads like grizzly and decaying rain, painting their clothes and faces red with the death of others.
As the four looked around in horror, they saw some bodies stuck on pikes and others pinned to the walls with their faces pinned up to look like dead clown smiles. Some were missing some or all part of their anatomy or certain parts were pinned with spikes in the wrong places. It was like and undead freak show.
And the ringmaster of it all, Princess Raven, was standing on top of a pile of corpses. Like her own ghastly throne, she sat atop it with a menacing smile plastered on her face. She was as she had been the night Viper died, clad in a tight and revealing leather bodice and bikini underwear, as near as anyone could tell, and her high heels tipped with metal spikes for each heel glittered amongst the crimson gore beneath her like demon's eyes. Stephen was not staring at her as the others were, he was looking at the only standing figure left in the building aside from themselves, the portly young man staring vacantly at him at the bottom of mound of the dead.
"Mark!" Stephen cried out, and Raven started cooing and laughing.
"Oh, your voice, so musical, so sexy….I knew all this hard redecorating would bring you to me. After all, you'd do anything for your friends, even die for them. Stephen is it? Very common, but once I'm through with you boys, you'll all have glorious names, like myself." Raven chuckled, floating down to stand behind the vacant looking Mark. As she started to grope him, Stephen snapped.
"Shove it up your ass, bitch! You said you'd let him live if we came here, now let him go. You've already ruined his entire life by making him kill all of those people! Stop tormenting him and pick on someone else!" he yelled.
"Did I say that? Hmm…oh.…Mark dearest didn't kill all of them, he just watched me work my magic. Nice of you to try and give him some credit, but it is all in vain," she cooed, putting one hand around Mark's neck and the other to his chest," I never said I'd pick on you, I just want your bodies…..your great energy. This toy….is useless to me now. I always break my toys sooner or later."
With that, Raven kissed mark lovingly on the cheek, the proceeded to blow Stephen one, but instead snapped Mark's neck. As his lifeless body dropped to the gore encrusted floor, Stephen's eyes went wide, all sound that gave him a voice leaving him at once. All he could do was stare and tremble, his heartbeat deafening him as he looked at his friend's body slump to the ground.
"Now be a good bunch of humans and surrender now….I'm sick of waiting for my glory." Raven chided, as if they had done something wrong.
"You….you….you killed him…..you killed my best friend…..my friend….MY GOD! YOU BITCH!" Stephen stuttered out to a full blown scream, yanking out his pendant," I'm going to kill you, Raven! Moon Sword, Transform!!"
Raven stared in disbelief as her prize target became her main enemy, the Moon Knight. Much to her great displeasure, the other young humans with him held their fists to the sky, rings of blue, red, and green glimmering at their words
"Mercury Ice, Transform!"
"Mars Fire, Transform!"
"Jupiter Thunder, Transform!"
"Galaxy Knights….so that's why you had such great energy! No matter….I was prepared for you all showing up, and since it seems that I invited you all here….why don't you take a good look at what a real woman can do! Dark Goddess, Dark Spectrum!" Raven cackled, her dark energy fleeing from her body and into the corpses that laced up the entire warehouse. Stephen paid no attention to her rambling and went right at her, catching her across the cheek and then the arm as he put all of his sorrow and rage into every attack. Raven just leapt back and snatched a pair black daggers out of nowhere, coming at him just as hard.
The other weren't as fortunate to get in a one on one battle, they got the results of Raven's spell, the living dead. Corpse after gutted corpse pulled themselves off the walls and out of Raven's throne pile, just letting out the sounds of broken bones and loose sinew slapping against each other, breathy gasps shoving out of their gaping, torn mouths as they moved toward the other three knights.
"Argh, this is disgusting! Get away, slime ball!" Lamont growled, spinning his pole-arm and slashed and jabbed at whatever undead creations came near him, but they kept picking themselves up and coming at him again.
"This is horrific! Raven is mad! Back, demons, back!" Angela rasped, slashing her sword to sever as many limbs and heads as she could. Parts crawled and grabbed at her legs, trying to stab through her armor to pull her insides out. Angela used her sword and her boots to get the gore covered things off.
Ray wasn't having a much easier time, he had a few of the undead creatures clawing at his back, a few hanging on as well. One was busy choking him and other was trying to bite through his helmet.
"God, this is stupid….we need our powers. Not our weapons, they won't quit….Argh, get off me, road kill breath! Take that!" Ray shouted, cutting off the biter's head and arms before shoving the still biting head of his own. He ran backwards and slammed the other creature into the wall hard before whipping around to cut it to shreds. When he turned back around, he was cornered.
"Ok, that does it….I don't care if you were human once….Oh my God….she didn't! That bitch!" Ray stammered, unable to move when he saw a few of the hideous faces and bodies limping towards him. He knew these faces, what remained of them, one was his close friend Sho Haramishi, the guy he normally did his runs with at school. He'd been declared missing a few weeks ago. Then there was Lei Satoshi, his lab partner in chemistry, the one who always said he'd end up blowing his hands off if he kept mixing too much in the test tubes.
Now here they were, Sho dragging himself along the floor without his legs, one looking like it had been shredded to death, reaching for and trying to eat him. A ways behind him was Lei, one hand hanging by a thread of rotting sinew and his jaw was missing.
"She took our friends….she took our friends. Mercury!!! Raven killed people we knew from school….just like she took Mark, she took some guys I know! God, what has she done to them?!" Ray shouted.
Mercury heard it, but didn't want to believe it. She had no friends, no acquaintances except Stephen, Alan, Gary, Ray and Lamont. There was no one here she recognized, but then again, Raven preferred men, not women. She probably never watched Mercury. Then she heard Jupiter cry out," Cici! Holy shit, she got Cici, Aiko, and Beck! Girls I wanted to date….they're here too, Mars! Mercury!"
Mercury took a moment to look in Jupiter's direction, slashing off another severed arm to make it a severed hand. Then she saw them, plane as day, three blood stained blondes, one of which looked a bit familiar.
'That's right the girl who was being attacked the night I became a Galaxy Knight….Raven….Oh god, she'd got metal spikes in her eyes and hair. She murdered her too!' Angela thought, her eyes widening with horror as Jupiter tried shoving the three gruesome blondes away from him, jabbing them in their carved out stomachs, but they just got up and went after him again.
Mercury was about to come over to aid him when she felt something latch onto her leg, trying to climb up it and clawing at her bare thigh. She hacked at it, horror and sadness filling her eyes as she saw what she'd hit.
"A child….guys, she's murdered little kids. God….more are coming! We have to end this now….they're not human anymore, they're not even alive….! Guys, we have to stop them or we'll never get to Raven. She did this! Use your powers!!" She screamed, tears welling in her eyes at the sight of little boy laying there cut in half, his socket-less eyes holes and gaping mouth drooling at her.
She picked it up and threw it right at the three blondes approaching Jupiter, knocking the undead trio over. She ran over to the startled knight and shook him.
"They're not human….not anymore. They're gone, Jupiter. All we can do is end their pain. We have to destroy them….there's no other way….Moon Knight needs us too, we can't be kind to these things or he'll join them. Come on, for Moon Knight, to avenge all this pointless death, we have to, you know that as well as I do." She told him, and got a nod. "Mars….," Jupiter shouted, half-croaking it out," Destroy them….only destroying Raven matters. Use whatever means necessary to get us to him."
"You got it, Jupiter. Raging Hell Fire!" Mars yelled, slashing his sword at the hoard of zombies before him. They were incinerated in an instant by the fireballs that came out of the slash, allowing Mars to reach his friends.
"Ice Slash!" Mercury shouted, dozens of freezing ice shards flying out of her sword to crash into multiple zombies, stopping them cold.
"Now its my turn, Spiral Shocker!" Jupiter growled, slamming the bottom of his pole-arm on the gory ground to let out the green spirals of lightning swirl about him, then let them loose on the frozen zombies.
More were coming from behind and the sides, but all in front had been eradicated. That was enough for them, for now. "Now we help Moon! It's now or never! Hyah!" Mercury crowed, rushing forth towards the dueling pair.
~
Stephen Tsukikage had his angry moments when he was less than desirable as company to anyone, moments when he'd threaten to stuff his sister in the blender of the garbage disposal, or if he was teased to such an extent that he could hold back his anger. None of those moments could even compare to the hate and unchallenged rage he was feeling towards Raven, the murderer of hundreds of innocent people, and one special innocent in particular.
Mark Tepes, his best friend since he could walk and talk, the one he'd trusted and relied upon in the best and worst of times. The guy who never judged him, the guy that always made him laugh before they were separated over one drunken night between their parents.
Now he was dead, dead at the hands of an inter-dimensional floozy with S&M desires, a homicidal princess that killed Mark to gain Stephen, Lamont, and Ray as her energy slaves. The plans of the Dark Universe had destroyed hundreds of lives just to gain three young men, three young knights. Stephen never felt so enraged, but more at himself.
'Cyrus was right….I should have quit shucking off my responsibilities and gone after her. If I had, mark would be alive and Gary and Alan would be all right. We'd all be all right if I wasn't such a screw up! ARGHHH! Its all my fault!' he screamed at himself, taking another swing at Raven, his hits so full of rage the princess' daggers were forced back into Raven and cutting up her chest.
"I HATE YOU!! HE DIDN"T DO ANYTHING TO YOU AND YOU STOLE HIS LIFE! I will never forgive you….I'm going to kill you with my bare hands if I have to! Die! JUST FUCKING DIE!!" Moon Knight screamed, catching her in the right eye with his free hand before slashing his sword across her front.
Then he felt sharp pain in his shoulder, then sticky warmth running down his chest and arm. He jumped back at the first sensation of pain and found one of Raven's dark daggers had been rammed into his shoulder.
'Stupid….you were too angry to see that sucker move. She'll pay, I won't be denied….Her pain will be more than mine!' he thought angrily, but as he moved, his body was wracked with pain, the dagger in his shoulder crackling with purple lightening.
"Stupid, child….Dark Universe weapons steal energy…..but then again, you didn't know that till now. The more you fight it, the more it takes. You can never hope to escape it unless someone takes it out….and you'll never succeed. You'll only be pained when you do….Hah, hah, hah. All that effort for nothing. Poor Mark died in vain, Moon Knight, and so will you! Not even your pitiful friends can save you. You're mine!" Raven cackled, a mad look on her face, dark eyes wide and crazed.
Moon Knight looked away from her only to see his friends surrounded by zombies, battered and bloody from the battle. 'No….it can't end like this….Mark, I'm sorry. I….no, I won't fail! Never! I'm going to fight.' He thought harshly, looking at Raven with daggers in his eyes.
"Forget it, you old hag! I'll never give up. Argh…..ah, never!!" Moon Knight shouted, reaching desperately for the dagger, but his body convulsed with more and more pain each time he tried. "Prepare to merge with the Dark Universe pretty one. Prepare to be mine!!" Raven said triumphantly, raising her other dagger to throw forth at Moon Knight.
Moon Knight saw a glint of silver rather than darkness, a silver sword, stabbing right through Raven's dagger holding hand. The dark dagger clattered to the floor with purple blood spattering and mixing in with the human red. Lady Glamour had just run her sword through Raven's hand, and with slight turn, she'd run her through the chest. And kicked her away. Glamour was soon by his side, yanking the dagger out of his shoulder.
"Are you all right?" she asked, looking back to where Raven was laid out, stunned. Moon Knight, being deeply in love with this woman, should have been overjoyed at the sight of her, but his heart wasn't in it. He could still see Mark's dying moments in his mind, nothing to stop it. He just nodded, not looking at her.
"She took so many….and not a drop of energy…..This….this is beyond evil, Glamour….I couldn't save them…." Moon uttered, feeling Glamour help him to his feet.
"I saw….what she did to the young man when I arrived. I couldn't help him either…..or any of them. I was far too late….as always. I keep losing people….to them." She whispered, her voice sounding pained.
'She….lost to them too? People here or in the past?' he wondered, then back up a bit as Glamour glowed a gentle amethyst.
"No mercy!! Murderer race! Keepers of the Earth, punish your defilers with your divine breath! Earth Rumble!" Glamour cried out, her voice full of unshed tears and sadness it made a few slip across Moon Knight's cheeks.
He teetered a bit as the ground rumbled, then splits open, swallowing up some of the dead and lacerated parts that were struggling to reach the knights. The giant, green and metal thorn covered vines shot out of the cracks in the ground, latching themselves onto Raven as she tried to float out of reach.
They ripped at her evil body, spilling purple blood all over her body and the ground. Then the vines began to pulled her down into the ground, her dark energy flailing wildly around her body as she tried to break free. More and more vines came with each one she destroyed, bent on taking her to hell, Moon surmised anyway. He raised his own blade when he thought Raven would get free and shouted," Die, you Dark Universe whore! Celestial Beam!!"
The beam of light smashed dead center into Raven, the vines gripping her again and tugging into the cracks they'd made. An explosion of dark light erupted from the ground once he could no longer see Raven, then the cracks closed and vanished without a trace. Moon turned about to help his friends, but there was little reason to do so when he looked for them. The undead army of once beautiful and happy people had all fallen to the ground.
Without Raven to guide them or control them, they were just corpses, only capable of doing one thing, being dead. Moon paid no mind to Glamour this time and made his way towards Mark's body. It just laid there in the same place Raven had snapped his neck, looking to his right, directly at Moon himself with a glazed and peaceful expression. Moon scooped him up in his arms, the eyes of the body shutting upon his touch.
"Why did it have to be you? Why….God? Why him?' he uttered quietly, tears flowing out of his mask mixed with the blood the building had rained upon him. A few tears fell on Mark's face, running down with a slight glint in the light.
"Why?" he shuddered, falling to his knees with the body held close, then he began to sob.
All of the knights, even Glamour surrounded him, their eyes wracked with pain and agony at Moon's sorrow. Glamour began to shed tears of her own, only staring at him and nothing else, the blood over Raven still drizzling down her arm. Mercury fought back her tears, biting her lip at that low spoken comment.
"We should….call the police and get out of here. I can't…..God, I can't take anymore of this waste of life anymore. It makes me sick." Glamour uttered, fighting back her own pain. Mars and Jupiter nodded, their mouths trying to speak, but only choked words came out, nothing anyone could understand. Moon nodded with them.
"Yeah….he won't be blamed for this. That woman will….the survivors….and Stephen….they'll….tell the police he didn't do it. They will…."Moon choked out, laying his friend's body down on the ground slowly before standing up.
"Yes….the survivors….will tell the truth, as much as can be expected. For all these lost souls….ah." Glamour tried to say, the pain in her voice cutting her short. Moon watched her run out of the building, blood lacing her feet as she fled into the night.
'Yes….and they were avenged….for now. Raven suffered.' He thought coldly before running out of the building, trying to escape the pain as fast as he could.
~ The Dark Universe ~
Raven had been lucky, she'd teleported away from Glamour's vines and Moon's attack the moment she had gone under, so they'd never suspect she survived. He trudged into Specter's throne room, her stomach bleeding a purple river behind her as she headed for her lord. He was staring at her, not smiling, his eyes tight and narrowed. Xeno was standing beside the throne, his eyes widened slightly, nothing but fear on his face. Raven could win Specter over, she knew who the Knights were, he'd let her live for that.
"Lord Specter….I….I know I failed….but I have valuable information…-gag-" she let out, her pain wracked and bloody body heaving from every word.
Specter stood up, Xeno stepping forward keeping a close eye on their leader. "You will not be forgiven, Raven. Princess or not, no matter what information you have! I care very little for your worthless words. You wasted boundless energy, you killed hundreds of people and never bothered to even siphon off their energy! You bloody fool! You do not deserve to be among the high ranks of the Dark Universe, you worthless piece of trash!! Rah!" Specter growled, his hand filled with his own dark powers and thrust it in Raven's direction. Raven was sent flying into a wall, kept there by Specter's powers.
Xeno looked terrified, running up right beside their lord with pleading eyes. "No, Lord Specter! She was my student! I should the one who is punished. Please!" Xeno begged, but Specter wasn't moved.
"She made her own choices and therefore her own mistakes. She should suffer for them with death! Echo Break!" Specter growled, smacking his hands together for a moment before thrusting them apart. As he did so, Raven was dismembered, her body splitting from every extrusion of her entire body in a hailstorm of purple blood and screams.
"Xeno! Avenge me! Kill the Galaxy Knights! AHHHHH!!!!!" she screamed before her head and limbs were torn from her body. The parts melted into the stone floor, bubbling all the way through the stone, leaving nothing but a purple smear on the wall and floor.
Xeno ran towards it, calling out for Raven, but she was already gone. When he reached the spot where she'd been killed, he stared numbly on the verge of dark tears that his lover had been killed. Killed by their lord and master. He just stood and stared at the blood, shivering.
"You will not get the next chance, Xeno, I need you here to instruct Kitty. She's next in line for the Earth missions. I hope you trained her better than you trained that slut. Understood?!" Specter boomed, getting a curt nod from Xeno.
"As you wish, Lord Specter." Xeno said, sounding as obedient as he could manage. After Specter had left the throne room, not even looking back at the heartbroken warrior, a single raven feather floated down towards Xeno. He caught it easily with his hand, a touch of Raven's blood on a few sections of the midnight black feather.
"My love….I will….I will avenge you, my precious dark bird. My Raven, I will avenge you, lover." He uttered, clutching the feather close to his chest, shutting his eyes to let a single black tear slide down his pale cheek.
(Note: Not someone you can feel bad for dying, but you have to sympathize with Xeno. He's not like the others, so he can love unconditionally like a human, not like Raven does just for power and pleasure, he does it for himself, for true love. Poor guy, ah well, too bad. She was evil.)
End of Part Two…. Wings of Death Epic!
Stay Tuned this Summer for Part 3, the Spectrum Crystals Saga and Princess Kittiana!!