Chapter Twenty-4: Faces of the Past
Chaos engulfed the obliterated platform, sunlight ceased to barely exist with the thick acrid smoke rising up in the air. It smelled like death, everywhere was a corspe lying helplessly on the ground, killed without a purpose.
Standing in front of him was his prey, his nemesis. The soon to be dead bystander that he solemly obsessed to annihalate.
"We shall see, who walks out of here today, you or me." Corin said giving another wicked laugh. "So get ready."
Tange stepped back removing his vest and taking his coat off and requipped the vest again after throwing the long coat aside. Corin threw his shades to the ground, and unbuttoned his coat so his chest wouldn't feel so tight. He also removed his black leather gloves, deciding that he wanted to get rid of Tange with his bare hands.
Tange removed the flamethrower, taking the fuel canister out tossing it to the side and unclipping the machine gun.
"Ready?" he asked cynically, getting into a fighting stance. Tane did the same five feet away from Corin's grasp, he was going to squash him like a bug showing no mercy or no change in heart. He was hoping Tange would do the same, because a challenge was what Corin enjoyed.
Tange stood silent, both of them waiting for the first strike. He wasn't going to wait all day he was going to go in- 3....2.....1....Now! He darted forward shooting his right fist at Tange's collar bone, missing as Tange ninety-degreed out of the way-
-and kicked Corin hard in the chest making his forward arched body lift off the ground into the air about three inches. As he hit the debris infested floor, Tange tried upper-cutting him missing his chin by an inche as he arched his whole upper body back.
Recovering from the dodge, he tried again, shooting his right fist at Tange this time getting him in the chest and sent him flying back a few yards, landing with a thud on his back. He ventured forward, running and went to run his boot into Tange's face.
All he got was the pounding of metal, seeing Tange at the last second, rolling on his stomach to Corin's left, simultaneously placing his hands on the ground, pushing at it and letting his whole body rise into the air. He delivered a half-body twist to come face to face with Corin and ran his fist into the side of his head making him stumble sideways in uncoordinated steps.
Tange was much more stronger than the encounter, visciously stronger, more aggressive in which Corin admired in a fighter. He turned to face Tange catching his fist in his hand and pulled him forward, swung him over his head and slammed him into the metal platform on his back. The sound of impact was sweet, a loud explosive-like sound that reverberated through the whole burning stadium, louder then the flickering of flames.
He had stunned Tange. His body laid momentarily paralyzed as he slowly got up. This was Corin's chance, it was time for him to toy with Tange's mind and emotion, get him enraged and at the same time surprised.
Oh shit! The pain surged through his whole body as Tange knew that he were to die any second now, the passing time to give Corin the advantage to deliver the final blow that would end his life as the leech man ended Caitlyn by stabbing debris through her upper torso.
He waited as the pain swiftly died down in seconds. And in seconds nothing happened. Tange quickly got up to his feet to face Corin, Oh shit not this again! He thought out loud, seeing Corin, his hands with flames engulfed them standing over three leech men corpses that were cooked by fire twenty feet away.
"I'm surprised by your improvement in strength by anger and hate." Corin shouted, his face partly blocked by the thick black smoke. He stepped forward showing his face which showed his clenched teeth and wide hateful eyes. Corin waved his hands around like performing a sacred ritual and sent a stream of bluish green flames to the leech corpses.
Watching, the B.O.W.s slowly rose from the ground, two of the three changing their appearance into the familiar faces of the past. The faces of the innocent people of Scrapson, those who were left behind in the now radioactive crater of the city: Dusty Stracener and Michael Jones.
Both of them advanced forward, dressed in the same clothes as they died in. Their not real, not real. He told himself this many times as both of them sent forward their own attacks simultaneously at him.
Dusty crouched forward sending a series of hits at him, Tange rebuffed the hits by blocking them by kicking his foot up, and then smashing his fist in Dusty's face. Michael jumped up and brought his foot forward. Tange saw this at the last moment, being hit in the chest in consequence.
He stumbled back tripping over some rubble and falling to the ground. Both Michael and Dusty got on opposite sides of him, Michael behind, Dusty in front. Under his foot was a sharp ended pole, Tange kicked his foot up launching the pole in the air, hitting Dusty in the chin, stunning him momentarily giving Tange enough time to jump up. He grabbed the pole in mid-air, slung it down Dusty's shoulder missing it as he stepped out of the way.
Just to make sure, he kicked his foot back, hitting Michael in the chest or whatever, he couldn't see him. At that same time, he swung the pole back, hitting Michael again and swung it forward again, this time hitting Dusty in the shoulder, driving it through his chest and out the side of his waist, cutting him vertically in half. The illusion of Dusty burst in a pile of leeches and then melted away.
Tange quickly turned around and ran the sharp rusty end of the pole into Michael's chest. He flung it up, cutting his face in half from the chin up. The illusion wasn't over, his face grew together with the sliced ends. Tange grew impatient, these things were wasting his time, he quickly swung the pole slicing the leech head off the body. The illusion quickly evaporated and fell into a pile of leeches and melted away.
He turned around dropping the pole to see Corin standing there, but it wasn't what he was going to expect. Standing in front of him was something he knew he couldn't destroy. It was the illusion of Caitlyn.
"Tange..." she said, was this real? Was she real? He couldn't tell. She died about a few minutes ago, maybe she wasn't dead. Maybe she was unconcious. But he saw the killer stick her through the back with a pole. She was-
NO! Her pulse stopped, her body was cold, this is not her. I closed her frozen eyes with my hands, I-
She touched his face, warming it up with the palm of her hand. "No!" he shouted stepping away from her grasp, "Get away! You're not real, you're already dead."
"No...I'm not." she said calmly stepping towards him.
"You have to kill her..." Corin said from behind him. "You and I know that she is not real. An illusion, testing your skills, your emotion." he continued, "Kill her."
"I can't-"
"Do it! Kill her now!" Corin shouted, getting frustrated. Tange heard Corin approach him quickly.
His shoulder was pulled towards Corin making Tange turn his whole body. Corin had the look of hate in his eyes as he swung the back of his fist across Tange's face making him fall hard to ground.
"DO IT!" he screamed.
Tange rolled on his back as he recovered from painful blow, his eyes and ears ringing. He got up, facing Caitlyn, so real...Her real body was only lying ten feet to his left, he could tell no difference in appearance of the illusion.
She moved forward, slow and steady, Tangejust watching. Then something overcame him, in the back of his head something revolted to his silence and stillness. A mere illusion, look, her body is right there, the real one! LOOK! He looked at her real body, now look at the fake one. See look, a pure evil, wrapped in a pretty wrapper. You know that's what it is, kill the evil, restore and purify the future.
Tange quickly realized what his mind just said. "YOU'RE NOT REAL!!" he screamed jumping forward and slamming both his fist into the illusion, sending it to the wreckage of what was left of the control tower. He screamed in rage, running forward as the Caitlyn illusion recovered from the impact of the attack, shrieking loudly, jumping up and charging towards him.
They both slammed into each other, Tange hearing Corin laughing in the background. He wasn't going to show the creature one bit of mercy, he sent punch after punch into the face of the creature, screaming through his clenched teeth. He kicked Caitlyn in the stomach knocking her or it to the floor. He snatched the discarded pole he had dropped and raised it over his head, looking her in the eyes.
"Tange..." she said, "don't do it. I'm real, don't kill me..."
He hesitated, not real. Here's a little newsflash, NOT REAL! He screamed, running the sharp ended point of the pole through the neck of the illusion, hearing Caitlyn's voice next screaming in pain. Her cry of pain got to him, he began to feel that bump in the back of his throat and felt the warm tears form up and fall down his face. He was angered and sad at the same time, the voice of pain subsided and died away as the illusion quickly turned back to the leech body structure and melted away.
The pole landed on the ground with a loud clang as Tange turned around quickly, sadness subsiding quickly to bloodlust, facing Corin who was only about arms length away from him.
Given no hesitation, he stepped forward smoothly and quickly and smashed his fist into Corin's face, seeing a cloud of blood shoot out of Corin's face anddissipate into the air, like smoke. Corin stumbled back turning his back to him and as quick as Tange saw it swing at his head from the side. He quickly ducked jumping at Corin's side, watching him move out of the way as he swung his arms overhead and-
-Tange felt a hard sharp pain in his back. Corin's hand grabbed him by the back of the neck and lifted him in the air. Tange began feeling blow after blow smashing into his body, everywhere. He grunted in pain, unbearable pain feeling it take the very soul away from his body.
Corin didn't stop sending the furious punches and kicks, while sustaining Tange in the air by one arm. Pure, sweet, victoriuos, REVENGE! He laughed in his mind. Hearing Tange's screams of pain was music to his ears.
He began laughing out loud, quickly stopping and throwing Tange to the ground, the sound of Tange's body and theground impacting together whichechoed throughout the destroyed platform.
Tange looked dead by the way he laid there, "Finally..." he said silently to himself temporarily exhuasted. He glanced over at his body and smiled cheerfully. He-
-"Oh...shit...." moaned Tange as he slowly crawled to his feet.
Corin growled walking towards him as Tange turned to face him, "WHY WON'T YOU GIVE UP AND DIE?!!" his shouting statement echoed through the room as he launched his arm from the side to Tange's face, Tange holding his arm up to defend the attack. Corin did the same with his other arm being stopped again by the same thing.
Tange felt like shit after that fall, but still he fought on. After stopping the second blow of Corin's punch. His nemesispulled his left arm away very slowly, time seeming to slow down. Tange quickly flung his arms out, his head then throbbing painfully as he shot both his arms forward at Corin, everything slowed down, the background waving around, Tange felt dizzy.
B-b-boom! The impact of his fists was devastatingly loud, an explosive sound that rang in his ears. next was the painful moaning of Corin as Tange's fists slid across his face.
The reality of time quickly came back putting time back to the way it was. Tange began falling after the blow, same as Corin. They were both falling to the ground Tange hitting first to what he felt. Corin landed next, laying flat on his back and stayed motionless. Darkness envied Tange's eyes as he lost conscious.
The fight was over...for now. The winner was no one due to a simultaneous knockout.
End of Part III: The Great Fall
Note: Back again. Okay, the story is not over. What a short Part III.I probably said that I wasn't going to leave any notes behind, apparently I lied.This is like the halfway point of the story, pretty weird? I hope not. Anyway read and review. More to come. L8er