In the Hands of Young Chôjin

By Son Rhandi

Chapter 07: "Dynasties"

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They say a good man is hard to find.
Thankfully, I'm not looking for one.
I've got a million bad boys, instead.
Each one under my thumb.

The wormhole dumped them on the rocky outskirts of the Factory, all five taking a hard landing on the ground. Kevin Mask wasted no time. He pulled the muscle prince up by his shirt. "Quickly!" He barked. "Which way to Hercules?!"

"Back off, Mask!" Gazelle knocked his hand away. "If you want to get there in time, follow me..!" The stag bounded ahead, the others following close behind. Leaping over rocks, sliding down hills, running across flat lands, how far from the school had they landed? Gazelle and Kevin were neck and neck in leading the forefront, Checkmate and Mantaro placing second and Seiuchin pulling up the rear. The sounds of men's struggles fill Gazelle Man's sharp ears, pointing straight up as they approached the cliff's edge. Plumes of smoke began to rise, visible even in their darkened part of space. Hurriedly their feet moved, mercilessly their hearts pounded, the ground quaking in their stampede.

He stopped short, that stag, the first to arrive. The others trotted to a halt, their eyes growing wide to the sights below. Hercules… Hercules was burning! No time to waste… They jumped off, each and every one, sliding down the rocky grade and doing well to keep their balance. As they speedily descended, the bodies of the fallen came into view, some of them being of Bloody Arms, some being recognized as under-classmen. Battles were being fought below, none of which taking place in the ring. A virtual melee was playing out on their school's grounds. They hit the ground, ignoring the clusters of fighting before the entrance of the Factory. Gazelle plowed into the practically unhinged double doors of the school's entryway, his skin already stinging from the sharp increase in temperature.

In the main corridor, the bodies of his underclassmen lay, a trail of blood and carcasses from the doors heading around the corner, small patches of flames burning like candlelight in the hall. Gazelle cringed inwardly, but bit his tongue and strengthened his resolve, leaping over the bodies, his comrades keeping steady to his pace.

The end of the long corridor led to the training grounds, where the worst of the situation unfolded. Coming up on its exit, the body count kept rising. The doors had already been knocked down when they arrived to the training area, and they could only look on in horror at their surroundings. The grounds were crawling with gangs of the Bloody Arms wrestlers, all wearing black T-shirts with the blood-red B*A emblazoned across the backs. Mobs of six or seven men surrounded their Justice Chôjin opponents of one or two men, the outcomes of each encounter being obvious… To strike another blow, the proud Hand of Hercules where they'd bested the Legends lay in ruin, the only bit of it left standing being the pillar of stone that once created the wrist. The hand itself had fallen, crumbling to rubble, to waste rock.

"This is… even worse than I imagined…" Seiuchin spoke, horrified.

"Out of my way!!" Kevin Mask pushed the others aside and bolted ahead to the building opposite them.

"Kevin!! Come back!" Mantaro called after him.

"Look out!!" Checkmate pulled the muscle prince back just as Crione Man hit the dirt, skidding and tumbling violently across the ground. "Crione Man?!"

The wail of wings cutting the sky--screaming like a jet at low altitude--came upon them, a painful rush of wind catching the wrestlers as it rocketed by them. Staying low to the ground and doing well to kick up dust clouds in the process, the aerial assailant zoomed to the downed Crione, kicking his body up and ahead without breaking his flight. Then, clutching the protozoa's shoulders, the body facing his own, the winged devil smashed him into the wrist of Hercules, leaving Crione embedded in the rock. As quickly as he came in, that demon resembling the gargoyle statues of France departed, doing a bit of a mid-air spin then stretching its wings to return to the sky.

"Crione!" The muscle prince was first to reach his side. "Are you okay?!"

"Mantaro…" The protozoan flashed a mouthful of bloody chiclets. Mantaro smiled, relieved. "Guys," he addressed them. "Help me get him down."

Gazelle Man and Seiuchin provided assistance, jarring Crione loose from the remainder of the Hand of Hercules and easing him down to their level. The transparent tussler began to collapse, too weak to stand. The arms of the animal combination shot out and guided him to his knees. "Crione Man," Gazelle began. "Can you tell us what happened..?"

"Urg… Sig… Help Signal…" He managed between breaths. "He's buried… under… there…." Crione raised a finger to the huge pile of rubble next to them.

"Rest for now. We'll dig him out." The blood-red buck eased their former rival on the ground and assisted the others in dissecting the mess of stone before them. Had he been atop the Hand when it had crumbled, or perhaps, below it? Either way, it was anyone's guess to whether he could have survived the body's fall or the rock fall.

"Guys! I've found him!" Seiuchin announced, unearthing a corner of the robot's yield sign head. They all converged to the pinniped's area, removing rocks as fast as they could. ………Done. The fellow looked as if he'd been struck by a car four times over. His torso was smashed, shards of broken glass lining the hollows of what once were traffic lights. His wire pole frame was dented and bent out of shape, comparable to an untwisted clothes hanger. The legs, painted a striped yellow and black, the colors of railroad crossings, lay broken apart from him, totaled.

"Is he alive?"

"Let's get him out." They pulled out his body, Seiuchin and Mantaro, the closest ones, resting the chassis in the dirt. The walrus noticed a bit of warmth on him hands as they excavated Dead Signal, not the same sort of heat a machine would generate, but the warmth of a flesh creature. Seiuchin looked down at his hands and gasped. His bandaged palms were stained with blood..! Mantaro had noticed the same, apparently, his gloves mottled with the stuff. Robots don't bleed, right..? "Guys," the pinniped began. "I think someone else is in there..!"

The Chôjin wrestlers began again pulling away the rocks. Indeed, another had been under there, just beneath Signal. First, they uncovered the legs, still attached to their owner, thank goodness. Pushing over stones big and bigger still to unearth the torso, the depressed chest concluding to crushed ribs. And finally, the head…

"Oh, Jesus… Buffalo Man…"

They choked back the bitter taste of gall, those young Chôjin. It was as if his head had exploded from the back. Blood and brain matter stained the ground, splattered in either direction. His face, Checkmate noted, wore the same expression that his master's did, one of fear, one of the realization of his own death. "This… This is inexcusable!" The king's fists quaked in anger. "What be it that these people wish to prove!?"

"I don't know, but there's no time to think about it right now," said Gazelle Man. "We'll have to fight our way through this if we want to get to the other Legends in time."

"W…Wait…"

They turned to Crione Man, still resting in the dirt. "We… Signal and I were… on the hand for a… a practice match with Buffalo Man. There was… an explosion, and… and suddenly we were falling. I… I can fly, so… I survived. Then those bat… things… or whatever, they attacked me…" He began to cough hoarsely.

"Save your strength, Crione Man." Mantaro rubbed his back, but the protozoan pushed him away with what strength he had left.

"I'm almost done… Jade…" He continued. "Jade was supposed to… be on his way… He's still in the… building… and as far as I know… so are the other Legends. …All these people… it seems they just… appeared from nowhere… Please… to one graduate to another... save the school... and as a Gen-EXer, take care of Jade... I beg you......"

"I promise..." The muscle prince stood. "We'll save the school and guard Jade with our lives. Will you be all right like this?"

"As long... as I lie still... they'll think I'm dead. Please, hurry......"

"Right." Mantaro turned to the others. "Anyone have a plan..?"

"I do." Gazelle Man stepped forward. "Our immediate concern is saving the other Legends. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's split up into two groups. Mantaro, you and Checkmate take the two classrooms in the west wing. If you can, try and catch up with Kevin Mask. Seiuchin and I will take the east wing. After each of us is done, report to the board room. That'll be our rendezvous point. Everyone okay with that?"

The agreement was unanimous.

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"The way things are now, yer pappy may well be a target, too. How's he doin', by the way? ..........That's too bad. He's the only daddy you've got, y'know."

Terryman's words echoed in Kevin's mind as he shot down the hall full speed, knocking out of his path Bloody Arms boys and Muscle Leaguers alike in his mad rush. The flames surged to his front, to his back, his left and his right... The Englishman just held tight to his trench coat and ran as fast as his heart pounded, checking room after room and body after body but still no sign of Robin...

"UGYAAAAAAHH!!"

A scream down the hall... Could it be..? He rushed to the room at the end of the hall, its double doors wide open. He heard a man's labored breathing upon his arrival. From the darkness of the room, he figured one of the Bloody Arms wrestlers must have busted the lights. Even in the dark, thought, the light from the hallway cast itself upon the gleaming streams of blood near the entrance and the bodies they flowed out of. Kevin entered, ignoring the disturbing 'plish-plish' sound of his stepping in the red rivers underfoot and keeping his ears open. The panting sounded as if it was coming from the back of the room. He moved carefully, cautiously in the dark, taking care not to trip over anything.

No such luck. He caught his foot on something--probably one of the bodies--and stumbled, eliciting a startled little gasp and gaining the attention of the other living being in the room. "Who's there?!" A man called out with a course British brogue.

"Father..?"

The old man blinked. He moved toward the lighted part of the room and appeared in front of his son, clutching his side. Kevin just looked back at him, a softened expressiveness in his eyes. "You're bleeding... Then, it was your scream..."

"No. It was that one there," Robin pointed to the body beside them, its mouth agape and eyes rolled back in its head. "This wound, though, it's nothing. I... Gah..." Robin collapsed to one knee, only gaining a mildly concerned look from Kevin. "S-So," the old Legend began. "I suppose you're here with these other hooligans..?"

Kevin folded his arms and snorted. "Actually, I came here to make sure you were still alive. I won't tolerate you dying before I get my revenge."

"Revenge? For what?"

"'For what,' he says... You know very well what: my childhood! The constant rigors of training and studying from sunup to sundown, day in, day out... I wanted what the other children had: friendship, good times... I wanted to be normal!"

Robin blinked, then chortled at his son's words. "And that's why you ran away? Don't be ridiculous, Kevin Mask!" He continued to laugh.

"What's so funny?!" The young man growled.

"How much normalcy could you come to expect in being born a Chôjin? Besides, if you were so frustrated, why didn't you speak up? You're as much to blame for your own stress as I am, and the way I see it, you're being nothing more than a brat!"

The young Englishman was speechless. It never occurred to him--really, it hadn't-- that maybe, if he had said something, just maybe...... "Anyway, I don't have time to deal with you..." Robin gathered his strength and rose to his feet. "There are still many inexperienced students here. I have to fight so that there will still be a Hercules Factory for them to learn at." He scooted his son aside and made for the exit.

"...Wait."

Robin looked over his shoulder. Kevin Mask sloughed out of his overcoat and led Robin back to where the light of the hallway met the darkness of the room and leaned him against the wall. "Stay here," he said, guiding his father to the floor, having him sit up. "You won't be able to fight for long with that wound." Kevin wrapped his coat around his father's midriff, tying the loose ends tight. "These connivers are after you old Legends, so stay out of sight. If you die, I won't forgive you."

Kevin gave him a final thoughtful look before rushing out the door to regroup with the New Gens. The old Briton just looked on and sighed deeply, keeping a hand to his injury.

Knowing that you're not with these people... That you're fighting to help others, even if it is just so you can fight with me... It makes me feel like living. ...I won't die here.

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"Red Rain of Berlin!!"

His searing-hot hand melted a hole in the assailant's chest and the muscle-bound menace fell back, desperately taking in air with the one lung he had left. "Master Ramen Man, we must hurry!" Jade wrapped his arm around the old Legend's waist as Ramen Man leaned on the young German's shoulder. The aged man hobbled as quickly as he could with a broken leg, hastily splinted in place by Jade.

The smoke was getting thicker...
His eyes were beginning to sting...
Breathing became more difficult with each passing minute, as well...
If they didn't make it out soon...

"Stop, young man," commanded Ramen Man. "I hear something."

"Vas?"

"Rumbling..."

The old China man closed his eyes, pushing back his pain and concentrating on the sound, increasing in volume with every second past. Where was it coming from..? He cocked his ovular head slightly. Jade was picking up the noise, too. It sounded almost like a stampede......

"Achtung!!"

He pushed the old Legend out of harm's way just as the attacked crashed through the side wall, catching Jade with the single, curved horn sprouting out of its snout. It barreled forth still, going through the opposite wall, then the next wall and the next wall, Jade taking all the force of the charge. It ended with the beast-man smashing Jade into a wall too thick for him to barrel through, probably the stone outer wall of the university. The young man let out a snarl, clawing at the rhino's face. Of course, being human and as such having rather blunt nails, no damage occurred. The beast applied more pressure to the German, crushing his chest and abdomen. Jade gave out a painful cry, but bit back his suffering and summoned up inside himself the legendary fire. "Red Rain--"

"Antler Fist!!"

Gazelle Man arrived on the scene to let the rhino have it, driving his Antler Fist into the beast's side. It turned its heavy head and gave the buck an unreadable look, and Gazelle gave him a victorious smirk in return. Then, the rhinoceros spread its lips in an ugly grin, tsking the stag. Gazelle Man quirked an eye ridge, then looked to the area that he'd struck, his mouth agape. He hadn't damaged him at all..! The spires had merely been sucked into his skin! Gazelle Man mentally kicked himself for not remembering about rhinoceroses and their armor-like hides. Things went from bad to worse for the blood-red buck as the spires on his fist cracked and crumbled, falling in pieces to the floor.

"Oh... shit..."

The beast-man shifted his attentions from Jade to Gazelle Man, cracking his knuckles, each fist as big as the stag's head.

"Oh, shit... Oh, shit... Seiuchin..? Seiuchin..?!"

There was no way in hell Gazelle could ever stand up to such a hulking brute, easily twice his height and thrice his girth. He'd have to play his trump card. "I don't want to resort to this, but you leave me no choice. Take this!"

BAMM! A high kick right between the legs. Well, that old rhino toppled right over, defeated by a go at the gonads. "You okay?" Gazelle knelt to Jade.

"That... was pretty low..."

"You're still alive aren't you?" The crimson stag helped the fellow Muscle Leaguer to his feet. "Come on. We have to get out of here."

"Ja, but what's going on? Why is Hercules being attacked?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, we have to find the other Legends."

"Herr Ramen Man is through there." The German pointed to the bulldozed--well, rhino-dozed--tunnel he crashed through.

"Then we should hurry."

They sped through the newly formed tunnel, leaping over wall shrapnel and small, burning patches of the individual halls. Imagine their surprise to see that Mantaro and Checkmate had already reach him. "Gazelle Man," Mantaro addressed him. "You found Jade. That's great."

The crimson stag nodded. "Have you two found any of the other Legends?"

"Both Curry Cook and Geronimo......" The muscle prince lowered his head. Gazelle nodded in understanding, looking a little disappointed.

"'Tis a pity, but we muscle hurry Sir Ramen Man to safety." Check hoisted the old master on his back, minding his injured leg. "By the way, Gazelle Man, where hath Seiuchin gone?"

The buck's ears shot up in realization. When he had heard the sounds of that rhinoceros crashing through the walls, he'd ran ahead to check it out. Seiuchin hadn't followed. He didn't answer his calls, either...

"You left him by himself?!" Mantaro asked, flabbergasted. "He can't handle this type of heat for very long. We have to find him!"

The mad rush back through the tunnel and back to their walrus friend began, a short trip, in essence. Gazelle led them back the way he came, down the burning hall and around the corner.

"Here's a present!"

A familiar-sounding grunt and they found their Seiuchin being slammed against a wall, drenched in sweat. "Have another!" The grizzled old hound struck him with the brunt of his palm, the pinniped grunting in pain and losing a tooth in the aftermath. He wanted with all his might to fight back, but it was just so hot...

"Back away, Hoffman!" The muscle prince demanded.

The beast turned around. He suddenly found himself surrounded by the Muscle Leaguers, none of which happy to see him. The pinniped looked up, "Mantaro..." giving a little smile. Seiuchin got to his feet, seeming to regain some resolve at the arrival of his comrades, clenching his fists and putting on his game face.

Hoffman just grinned at the lot of them, not seeming to care that the odds were stacked against him. "Hah! You think you have a chance at beating me? Not likely!"

"Can thou really sayest such a thing after being disgraced at Terryman's ranch?" Checkmate pointed out. The hound just snickered and gestured for one of them to come at him.

"You are the one responsible for all of this..?!" Jade growled. "You'll pay!" He rushed forth, fist drawn back and ready to deliver Hoffman some well-deserved punishment. He figured one of them would be dumb enough to initiate... With a wave of his claw, a black space opened up in front of him. The young German could not react in time to retract his fist and let it fly into the portal. He tried to pull it out, but it was no use. The black expanse only continued to suck him in, slowly but surely. "Vas is das?!" Jade tugged violently, trying to dislodge his fist for dear life.

His objective accomplished, Hoffman leapt from the human ring and turned to face them. "What will you do?" Inquired the hound. "Will you give chase to me or try to help your friend? Better choose quickly!" He booked down the hallway, giving himself a head start in case they decided the former.

"Damn! We walked right into a trap!" Gazelle pounded a fist into his open palm.

"I'll go after him," Seiuchin volunteered, starting after the beast.

"Seiuchin!"

The walrus turned to Checkmate. "To mine eyes, it's obvious this fellow won't be able to escape. Please get Ramen Man to the outside."

"B-But..."

"Prithee, do me this, dear walrus. I must... avenge my master. Dost thou think ye can make it?"

"...I can. ...I will." They made the exchange, Seiuchin bearing the weight of the old master and Checkmate to follow through Hoffman's dark portal, identical to one of his own. The pinniped looked back, most of Jade's body already in the vacuum and the others looking ready to go. With a final thoughtful glance, he made down the hall to get back to the main entrance, wishing them the best of luck.

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That beast, Hoffman made it to the roof in record time. The mission was complete, and there was nothing more to do. The fellows on the inside had already been alerted to disengage via the blowing of a call whistle. If they heard him, good. If not, too bad. He pulled out a flare gun and pointed it to the sky, firing the signal for the fellows on the outside to pull back. Each team had a member who could open portals. It wasn't a particularly uncommon ability, especially among evil Chôjin. Before he knew it, the battlefield became emptied out, his fellow warriors disappearing into spirals of black. He himself withdrew, as well, throwing himself to the darkness of his own creation to return to base. His master's plan had worked perfectly.

It had been a wonderful party, indeed.