WAHHH! Back-to-back updates?! What kind of hell world are we living in?! I'll tell you what kind, the kind that wants to just get this prologue of an arc out of the goddamn way, that's what. So, I've decided that we're going to cut into the belly of the beast and get this shit moving along. I know you want to, and I sure as well want to, so we're going head first into this.
That being said, as much as I would love to say "immediately after this we're jumping into the boiling isles" I can't. Why? Because there are still loose ends that need to be tied up. If you couldn't tell, I've been planting plot threads that will lead into how Luz finds herself in the boiling isles. And as cool as how the canon show showed off Luz going to the Boiling Isles, this will be far, far more different.
Also, I'm a big fan of doing build-up for necessary reasons, so there is also that. Maybe I should've just said that instead… Nah! Overly long explanations are totally the way to go.
That being said, we're also delving into our first fight scene, and I'm just gonna say this now, A lot of people will either be disappointed in what happens, or they'll nod their heads and go "Yeah, that makes sense" and carry on.
Also, also!
I have a P-Atr-Eon. Please check it out! The links are all in my bios on Wattpad, FF Dot Net, Ao3, and Qoutev. Just in case, here is the link: gobblegum2?fan_landing=true&view_as=public
That being said, let's jump into the chapter!
[The Raging Flame of Battle]
The tension in the air was suffocating. A five-on-one fight was unfair, and everyone knew that. But even then, the sheer look of determination on Cody Johnson's face was enough to send a chill down everyone's spines. The fact that he was brazenly standing there without a care in the world, ready and raring to fight, was enough to scare Luz.
Because that kind of determination meant he knew damn well what he was doing. Or, at the very least, he had confidence in his ability to make up for skill. Confidence went a long way, sometimes. Sometimes, confidence could completely change the way a fight worked. She'd seen in it Anime like Death Note, or even Dragon Ball, where the main character would have so much confidence in their abilities that they're able to take down any threat before them, even if said threat is vastly superior and stronger than them.
With that in mind and a boatload of caution, the battle began, and when it did, it didn't take long for the first fist to be thrown. Well, Luz would say fist, when in reality it was fire being slung at them for the second time in the shape of a fist, and it was aimed specifically at her. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, but instead of standing there, she ducked to take cover, and narrowly avoided the fist-sized fireball, diving down to the ground with a weak thud.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Judy gathering more dark energy around her arm, and with a grunt of effort, shoot that dark shadowy stuff out of her arm, aiming for Cody's head. She wanted to shout for Judy to not go for his head, but by then it was too late. The darkness closed in on him, and when it did, he smirked.
Cody'sarm went back to normal, and in a matter of seconds, his head morphed into a literal blob of flame, causing the darkness blast to phase right through him and hit a rock behind him, fragmenting the rock into nothing but little shards. Luz shuttered. If that blast had actually hit Cody, his head would've popped like a zit. Cody seemed to notice that too, but it seemingly did not affect him as he bellowed. "HA! Nice try! I can morph my entire body into flames! There ain't no way you can get me with weak-ass attacks like that!"
"Thanks for the info dump," Luz thought, holding back a laugh. Why was it that the bad guys told the heroes their abilities? Seriously, it made things too easy for the heroes to win in the end. And from what Luz noticed about Cody's power, he could only turn one part of his body into flames at a time. At least, that was her guess.
"Guys! He can only turn one part of his body into flames! Overwhelm him!" Luz shouted as everyone grunted in acknowledgement. Cody snarled, readying another attack. Before he could, however, Stanley closed the distance between Cody, and Ronny joined him. Both recoiled their arms in preparation to punch Cody, aiming for his chest.
In response, Cody morphed his body into flames while turning his head back to normal, smirking as he let out a wave of fire. Jean and Judy hit the floor so as to not get hit by the wave of flame. Anything the fire touched caught on fire, and burned to ash—mainly bushes, small branches, and any grass and leaves on the ground.
Ronny tried to block the flames, grunting as the wave of flame hit him, a groan of pain coming from Ronny as Luz cringed. Stanley didn't even flinch, changing his target from Cody's chest to his head. When Stanley's fist hit Cody's face, as soon as the impact was made, Cody went flying backward. Judy, Jean, and Luz all stood up, dusting themselves off as Ronny shook his arms. Small burn marks littered his arms and parts of his hands as he coughed.
"Are you okay?" Luz asked as Ronny snorted.
"What does it look like?" Ronny quipped, shaking his head. "I'm fine, Boss. Now, let's get after that—" Just before Ronny could continue, a massive plume of flame came speeding toward them. Thinking based on panic, Luz shot out Vines around the two trees in front of them and bent them down in an X-like cross.
There was a lot of strain involved, and it took every ounce of strength that Luz could muster, but in the end, she got the trees to bend. The flames hit the two trees, said trees blocking the path of the flames from hitting the group of five, though some of the flames did lick at the legs of the group of five, who walked back far enough away so that the flames wouldn't hurt them.
"Quick thinking, commandant!" Jean shouted, the french boy jumping up onto the tree, deploying his blades as he lunged toward the slowly getting up Cody. Cody saw him, and sneered, turning his right arm into flame. Just as he was about to unleash a lance of flame, Jean made contact with Cody, stabbing one of his arms with his blades, blood squirting from the wound as Cody shouted in pain, Jean following up the attack with a blade aimed at the boy's stomach.
Thinking on his feet, Cody switched his flame arm to his flame chest, the blade harmlessly passing through him and stabbing the tree behind him. Luz let go of the trees, the trees snapping back into place like rubber poles as the group of four caught up with Jean, who used his momentum from the lunge to position his body in such a way that his feet met up with Cody's face. "Ha ha! Gymnastics really did pay off! Mange mon pied, paysan!"
Jean then proceeded to kick Cody's face a total of five times before Cody let out another wave of fire. Jean brought back his arm blades and used that to jump upward so that he wouldn't get hit, while everyone else hit the ground.
Cody brought his left hand up to his right shoulder, wiping some of the blood onto his fingers, looking at it with a sneer on his face. "That was a cheap shot, asshole!"
Jean scoffed. "It was cheap for you to jump us, asshole!" Jean snapped back as Cody nodded.
"Touche. However, counter-argument, YOUR MOTHER!" Cody shouted back, turning his left arm into flames as he launched a cone of fire toward Jean. Luz shot out her Vines toward Jean, wrapping him up and whipping him back down to the ground, gently, while shooting more Vines at Cody, aiming to subdue him. Cody lashed his flame arm toward the Vines, said Vines catching on fire as they rapidly devoured them. Luz quickly retracted the Vines, however, that had been a mistake as the fire travelled with them.
Panic filled Luz's eyes as she shook her hands, trying to put out the flames before they could reach her. Just before the fire could hit Luz head-on, Judy shot out Darkness toward the rest of the Vines, cutting them off as they fell to the ground, the non-burned remains to slink back into Luz's fingers. Luz looked over to Judy, who shouted. "Thank me later!" Judy said as they both turned their attention to Cody, who sneered, anger and annoyance apparent in his voice as he shouted.
"Just. DIE. ALREADY!" Cody screamed, launching more fire at them as everyone ducked out of the way, everyone but Stanley, who ran through the flames, charging Cody with a football tackle, slamming his elbow into Cody's chest as the redhead gasped for air. Cody's body slammed up against the tree as blood came rushing out of his mouth, and as far as Luz was concerned, it looked far more painful than it did in the anime she watched.
Stanley grabbed Cody by the head and repeatedly slammed him into the tree. With each slam, the bark of the wood chipped and cracked, spreading small chunks of bark off of the tree as each impact made caused Cody to shout in pain.
"HOW!"
Thwack
"ABOUT!"
Thwack
"YOU!"
Thwack
"SHUT!"
Thwack
"UP!"
And with one final slam, the boy's arms slumped, and his flame arm disappeared. Stanley let go of his head as Cody slumped against the tree. Everyone looked at Stanley with concern and Cody with fear. Fear that Stanley might've killed him. With a bated breath, the tall, muscle-bound teen looked for a pulse, sighing in relief. "He's alive, just out cold."
Everyone sighed in relief, as Luz approached Stanley. "Well, Commander, what'd you want to do with him?" Stanley asked as Luz frowned. She knew what she had to do, but she didn't know if she should. "But then again, if he does find us again, we won't be ready for round two. Neither would he, but I'd rather not fight him again… so…." Biting the inside of her lip, she closed her eyes and made up her mind.
Reaching out toward Cody's head, she placed the palm of her hand against his forehead. Opening her eyes, they flashed red, as black and red electricity sparked around her arm, jumping around her arm and plinking off of Cody. Stanley stood back, eyes wide as Luz ripped the palm of her hand off of Cody's forehead, a mist-like substance sucking into the hole in Luz's hand.
Power surged through her like a current, as she stumbled back. It felt like a literal shock travelled through her body, and when it fizzled out, she took deep breaths to mitigate the shock. Clenching her hand into a fist, she focused on the power that she just took, as her hand turned into a flaming ball of pure fire. Luz couldn't help but feel a small smile make its way to her face, as Stanley chuckled.
"Well, I'll be damned. That's kinda cool," Stanley said, patting Luz on the back as the Dominican teen deactivated Flame. Now, she possessed two powers. Flame, and Vines. Deep in the back of her mind, she heard a dark chuckle, to which she shuttered. Shigaraki was well aware of this latest acquisition, and he was no doubt going to congratulate her on it in his own twisted sense.
Jean retracted his arm blades, walking over to Cody's unconscious form as everyone inspected the damage done to the teen. Blood trickled down Cody's nose and from the top of his head, as well as from his right shoulder. He was slumped over like a corpse, yet he was still breathing.
Looking over to Luz, Jean spoke. "So, what do we do now, commandant?" Jean asked as Luz hummed, tapping her chin. She didn't want to just leave him here, but at the same time, she wasn't too keen on taking an enemy with them. Especially seeing as he had tried to kill them, or at the very least maim them pretty badly.
"Well, he did try to kill us," Judy brought up, crossing her arms. "Shouldn't we do the same?"
Luz shook her head. "No. He's not a threat to us anymore. I took his power, he can't fight us anymore. At least, on equal footing," Luz said, sighing. "We should leave him here. When he wakes up, he'll either report back to his leader, or he'll run into a wild animal and die that way." As Luz said that, a cold look appeared in her eyes. Blinking, Luz cleared her throat as she let out a nervous chuckle. "Hehe, or, we could tie him up. But I think the second option is for the better."
Everyone looked at Luz, then at one another, and shrugged. "Well, you're the captain, can't say no, so… onward!" Judy said, pointing in the opposite direction of where Cody was slumped. "But first, let's gather our supplies. Can't camp out without them," Judy added before walking back in the direction of their stuff. After they grabbed their stuff, they set off down the way they were originally heading.
Luz looked down at her hand, turning Flame on and off, bewildered by how it worked. Her hand basically tore itself apart, transforming itself into flames, before reforming like it was nothing. And the entire time, she felt not a single ounce of pain. She would've thought that it would at least be painful but seeing as it wasn't, it seemed like it was par for the course. In reality, this made absolutely NO sense. That wasn't how logic worked.
But then again, superpowers popped up out of nowhere, so maybe holding onto the logic she knew about for the longest time was a bad idea.
"You know what…. Thinking about these sorts of things is only going to make my brain hurt," Luz thought, furrowing her eyebrows as she trekked forward, keeping up with the rest of her group. There was still a long way to go, and the last thing she wanted was to be left behind.
xxXXxxXXxx
[Three days later]
It was peaceful. Too peaceful as far as Julia was concerned. And it was in that peacefulness that she felt a wave of paranoia wash over her. It had been three days since the scouting party had left the base. Julia was aware that they were supposed to be gone for a week, but that didn't calm her nerves any. There had been times when she wanted nothing more than to run out of the base and search for them, just in case something bad happened and they were without some form of backup or help.
However, seeing as she was the second in command, she knew damn well that she couldn't do that. She had to stay behind and help with maintaining order in the base. And so far, everything had been running the way it should. People were tending to things that were needed to survive, there was no infighting, and the vibe was good, if not cautious. And while that was all well in good, Julia couldn't help but feel as if something bad was coming.
Now, granted, it wasn't like she had some sort of sixth sense, but there was just something about the air that set Julia on edge a little more than the days prior. For all she knew, something bad might've happened to Luz or the others out scouting, and she would be none the wiser.
That being said, she needed to have faith in Luz. After all, how was she supposed to look up to Luz as her saviour if she had no faith in her? Having faith in one's leader was the best way to get through the day, so that was what she did.
Leaning against the wall of the sleeping quarters, Julia sighed. Carla was tending to the fields with Marcone. Johnny and Theodore were standing atop the walls keeping watch as per her orders. And Arla was minding her own business, reading a book at a workstation that, prior to what he was doing now, Marcone helped Arla build.
Said workstation was a small wooden stand with a sloppy-painted red cross on the top, with various medical supplies dotted around the counter. It kind of looked like a lemonade stand, now that Julia thought about it.
Which left Julia, who was pretty much acting as a supervisor. Now, it wasn't that Julia didn't mind being a supervisor, but it did make her feel useless. She wanted to do something, damnit! Standing around and doing nothing was not how she wanted to do things. Hell, even yesterday the others were doing everything.
Well, she did clean the cabin of any dust, but that wasn't exactly being useful. That was just doing chores. And by God, the smell wafting off of some of those boys' beds… it was like Satan himself took a shit all over them. She knew why they smelt that way, but that didn't make it any less bearable. Shuttering at the memory, Julia sighed.
At least things couldn't get any worse, right?
And then, she noticed Johnny leaning forward, hand above his forehead, scouting something before recoiling. "Johnny, what's—"
Julia had little to no time to react to what happened next. Without so much as a warning, a pointed shard of ice shot through Johnny's chest, ripping through his skin and through his back as he came falling down from the wall with a splat, and a gross thud. Julia snapped to attention immediately, looking over to Arla, who jumped out of her chair and ran to Johnny.
However, it was far too late for any sort of healing to be done. Johnny was already dead, and there was nothing that Arla could've done to save his life. Everyone dropped what they were doing, and got into battle stances, as a ray of pure light shot through the drawbridge, setting the damned thing on fire. Theodore jumped and quickly climbed down the wall, drawing a blade from his body, and gripping it as tight as he could.
When the bridge burned away, Arla was the next to meet a grizzly fate, another light beam blasting Arla head-on, burning her to a crisp as she screamed in pain. Smoke blinded everyone from seeing however many people were attacking them, but that did nothing to stop Theodore, as he rushed the mysterious attacker, only for a hand to jut out of the smoke, and swipe at him.
His head fell cleanly off of his body, though he was very much still alive, screaming in rage and confusion, although he wouldn't remain like that for long. Julia could only watch in horror as someone jumped the wall in one clean go, their arms and legs coiled like springs as they dropped down from the sky, landing on Theodore's head, crushing it in the process.
At that point, all chaos ensued, as over 21 people poured into the base. That was when it became clear to Julia. Both The Heaven's Devils and Foxtrot were attacking their base. They somehow got ahold of their location, and now they were teaming up for whatever reason they had to get rid of them.
And that was all the information that Julia needed to know.
Julia booked it, unable to fight back against everyone. She could hear Carla and Marcone giving it their all, shouting and yelling. Julia couldn't bare to watch any more people die, so she ran deeper into the base, looking for an exit that wasn't the front door. She needed to find and tell Luz that they were under attack! Even if the information was too late to be sent out, even if the attack had already happened, there was a chance that maybe, just maybe, Luz and the others could plan a counterattack.
However, her efforts for trying to find an exit were in vain, as several fingers stabbed through her lower abdomen and upper body, blood shooting out of her wounds as a pained, agony-filled expression marred Julia's face.
Falling to her knees, all Julia could do was scream in pain as a boot came crashing down on her back, forcing her to the ground. She looked up and over her shoulder to see a redheaded girl staring down at her, a smirk on her face. She was wearing a leather jacket, a ripped-up shirt and pants, and pair of black leather boots. Their fingers were pointed like blades, and they were aimed at the nape of her neck. "Aw, shucks. Sorry that we crashed the party! But, you know what they say! You can't say you're sorry if you're truly not sorry!"
The person pressed down on her back, hard, making Julia scream louder. "Now, tell me…. Where is Luz Noceda? Because we've only counted 7 of you bastards when there's supposed to be 11. So, wherever she is, that means the rest of you guys are there,"The girl demanded, her voice filled with nothing but pure bliss, almost as if she revelled in killing people.
Julia's eyes widened, before she coughed, blood coming up instead of saliva, a burning pain coursing through her body. Truth be told, she had no idea where Luz was at. But even if she did, she was never going to release that information.
The only thing on her mind was Luz's bright smile. She might've only known her for a few days, and while she barely got to talk to her new friend, it was more than enough to make her happy. Even though she had been through hell, even though these last days were nothing but painful for Julia, the thought of Luz Noceda smiling at her, willing to talk to her, and being there as a true friend was enough to bring her peace of mind.
Falling flat on her face, blood pooling around her as Julia groaned, the points of the girl's fingers stabbed at the back of her neck, poking and prodding as the girl sneered.
"C'mon, say something you daft cu—" The girl was about to say something, only to frown. "Oh… I see. Yer dead, well… shit. Ayo! Boss! The bitch's dead!" As the girl said that, Kennedy Jennkins frowned. Kenndy was dressed in a white pullover, bright blue jeans, and white dress shoes. His hair was a golden blonde, and his eyes were a beautiful sky blue. He was as thin as a stick, and his face was as clean as a freshly cleaned dinner plate.
Kenndy sighed, shaking his head. "I see…. Well, that just means we'll have to roam the forest to find the stragglers. Darlene, go get Darwin and tell him that Kennedy has ordered the scouts to go out and find those who were not here during the raid. Scour the entire forest, and bring me their heads! Then, The Governor will be pleased. If you have to, work with Emilia's scouts. Go, now!" Kenndy ordered as Darlene nodded, leaving Kenndy with the corpse of Julia Wittebane.
Kneeling to Julia's body, he raised his hand above her neck, and slashed at it with his hand, severing the head off of the neck as it landed in a puddle of its own blood. Picking the head up by the hair of the body, Kennedy tossed it in the air and punted it like a soccer ball toward a wall in the distance.
"I've always hated the Wittebane's…. Bunch of pretentious douches," Kenndy grumbled, walking away from the body with a smirk on his face. And as the smoke cleared, the base was empty by the afternoon, only the corpses of those who were unlucky to be in The Alpha Squadron's base during the raid remaining.
And the only thing on Kenndy's mind was the extra 15 billion dollars they were adding to the prize pool for when this game was over, and for when he was going to win said money all for himself.
-To Be Continued in – The Hunt Begins – Part 1-
So… talk about a massacre am I right? I know a lot of people are going to be very, very upset with this, but to be completely honest, I just need to get this over and done with. It's been like, what, ten chapters and there hasn't even been a single mention of The Boiling Isles, you know, the MAIN FOCUS OF THE OWL HOUSE. So, I'm going to be ramping things up. Most of these characters are fodder anyway, so whatever.
I know a lot of people are going to be mad that I killed off Julia so early, but to be completely honest, her fate was always to die early on. There wasn't going to be a reality where she lives or makes it through this thing alive in the first place. But hey, at least she died a proper death instead of being killed in one shot, am I right?
That being said, I'm sorry to all of you who liked Julia, but she has outlived her use for the plot. Her tale was supposed to be a tragic one anyway, so not all was lost, right? If any of you want, you're free to use her in your own fics if how I ended things wasn't satisfactory for you. All I want is the credit for her name and appearance, that is all. Well, until next time everyone. Peace!
