Chapter summary: Blade begins day one of his much-needed training... only it was more than he expected.
Chapter 4: A New Beginning
It had been a typical night for Blade, much like every night was. He was rather hesitant in shaking of the nightmare he was having, only this wasn't his nightmare, it was somebody else's, and more importantly than that, it wasn't anything he hasn't already seen before: deja vu all over again for Blade, it seemed.
He was dreaming, and remembered the last moment they shared together, inside of their old place, beside a docking bay, with hordes of FBI officers swarming around every corner in every room, armed and utterly dangerous. Whistler was left with them, in a hallway filled with sleeper cells, each holding a computer inside. When he triggered th third, he took a shot to the hp, a silver bullet tearing a manhole through his moldy flesh. He fell, backed directly into a computer desk with a firearm in hand.
"He's got something in his hand!" a random FBI officer precautioned.
"Freeze!" said another. "Don't lift a finger!"
"How about this one?" Whistler asked, flipping the two officers off.
Wen Whistler came through with the transaction, the C-4 bomb exploded in his hand. An outburst of flames took him and the rest of them down with most of the holdout, which burst into flame and rubble, but nonetheless, it didn't end there. Not for old man Whistler...
...it was far from ended.
All around him, the flame particles began recollecting themselves and the clouds of fire and ash suddenly turned into a fiery pit all around him, and he had been falling through it, all the way to the deep and prolonged end. Whether he realized it or not, he, himself, was left all alone with the Devil, on a mission to Hell, and he would become the first to see him. First, and supposedly last...
A fury of repetitive yet near-silent echoes awaited him deep down below...
("The tales of your past shall soon perish") ... ("I will take your greatest fears") ... (and make them a reality") ... ("at last, your horrors shall suffice") ... ("there's no turning back now") ... ("once you have stepped in") ... ("there is no way out").
Apparently, that didn't sit too well with the old man."Who in the fucking hell are you?" Whistler asked in cursing. "Just where the fuck am I? What do you want from me you sick sonuvabitch!"
"Who am I?" the voice of the shadow questioned right back at him. "I'm the Devil, the very Incarnation of Evil, the berserker of pain, and the giver of death. As for where you are, or what I want, I think the name True Demon pretty much speaks for itself. I want your soul... it is deemed necessary."
"Necessary," Whistler began to question. "for what?"
"For your protection," the True Demon answered him.
"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean," Whistler impatiently asked him. "you fuggin' sick sadistic psychobitch?"
"It means that you and I, together," Phenom informed him. "can make ends meet. Through your newborn spirit to be, just imagine what we can accomplish."
"You wouldn't know the first thing about making ends meet," Whistler insulted. "honkeytonk."
"Oh really?" Phenom replied. "Then I guess it's for you to know, and for me to find out..."
At that moment, Phenom vastly approached Whistler with an intent to kill him. Whistler freaked in panic and backed off of the edge of the deathbed made of stone in which he lay prone to, sweat rolling down his frightful face and his eyes widening with fear as he fell off of it. He lay pinned up against the bottom of it, on both knees, begging and cowering for salvation.
"Okay! Okay!" Whistler pleaded. "Sir Phenom, I oblige. Just make it as quick and clean as possible."
"Why, I thank you, dear mortal," Phenom exhaled. "for your decision has led you past the darkness which blinds your path. Lesson be learned: before you can see the light, you must travel through darkness. You, my friend, have fulfilled that task. Now for the hard-earned reward..."
Suddenly, the air began to fold around Whistler and shrouded dust particles from his vastly-acquiring soul began to suffice as he is currently put in a freeze-frame position. A mere shadow of a supposed black mask/w a red cape begin to flicker over his face and shoulders while undergoing the sudden acquisition process when, just as Whistler's heart started beating once again, and he could finally breathe in and out once more, the flickering halted and is entrusted with the cape and mask he tentatively sought after. Nothing showed of his identity but his long gray hair stretching down the back of his neck. He came to eye Phenom, reclusively, bowing on one knee to do it.
"Good," Phenom rewarded. "Now that I have you under my wing, there is nothing, and no one, that can stop us from doing what is right..."
("There's nothing nothing") ... ("and no one no one") ... ("that can stop us.")
Those very words continued to echo inside of Blade's head for a moment until Blade's mind became irritated to the point where he would wake from his sleep, finding himself somewhere he never thought he would be...
...home sweet home... in Brooklyn.
Nonetheless, he knew he had to get down to business... there was much to miss.
Blade came walking down the stairs rather slowly as if tired, to the people who invited him here. They had been waring their usual set of clothes, as had he, whereas Ash and Reidyn look at him with a rather unimpressed look.
"Looks like your gear's a bit outdated there, B," Reidyn inferred.
"Here," Ash insisted. "Come with us. We have exactly what you need."
"Besides a girlfriend," Reidyn encouraged. "Right, Ashley?"
"Yeah," Ash responded. "Exactly."
Without further adue, Blade followed the two of the m into their special training quarters to the right of their living room. Through this door lay a dojo, which was mostly a blank stare as nothing filled it but a bunch of flaming red candles, clay pots and a few crates batched all the way towards the very end. Reidyn was already at the very end of the dojo by the time Blade became self aware.
"First thing's first, Blade," Reidyn informed him. "You will need stronger equipment if you are to withstand his soul-possessing strength and ability, and only we hold the anecdote for it. Come look and see for yourself."
Blade followed Reidyn over to one of the chests located towards the far end of the gym barricaded with stone pillars and clay pots everywhere around it. When he got there, Reidyn as ready to begin unveiling his new battle armor to him.
"The first thing you will need," Reidyn explained. "in order to slay the Demon which endangers us all, is immunity. To fight him, you must be restrained and properly equipped with the one thing he cannot destroy."
Reidyn closed the chest—which was sealed back up with a semi-audible leather clank at the very end of it all—as he was beginning to turn around to face Blade.
A gift from the ancient Temple of Doom," Reidyn carried on, completely turning around to face Blade now. "A self-proclaimed Hellsuit, said to have been passed on from Krypticalonean, a vampire legend-turned God who died six hundred years ago. Since his departure, this ancient artifact has been stowed away for centuries to come, never to be recovered... until now."
By then, Reidyn had already held the said suit in his hand. It was a black metal, one-sided vest with retractable armor.
"We have uncovered the final piece to the puzzle," Reidyn inscribed, pressing his finger up against a button on the suit. "Just press and hold this button here, and half a foot of metal and steel will be pierced through your flesh upon it's release, but don't ask: it's for your protection."
Reidyn tossed it to Blade, which he caught with ease. He eyed it with a rather awkward look as Reidyn came to his aid.
"Close your eyes, and try to relax," Reidyn encouraged. "This is gonna hurt a little bit."
Reidyn went through with the transaction. As the large piece of metal lay strapped securely around his upper body, he watched as a foot of metal came plunging through the skin with the press of a button located to the far right of it. Blade's eyes and face looked as if he was swelling with pain from it. When it was over, he sought after a metal body vest that was a foot thick, with half of it jammed tightly through the skin with spikes attached to the bloody end. Blade was rather slow at easing up on the pain driven from it.
"Oh, yes, it's a bitch, I know," Reidyn categorized, putting the rest of the Hellsuit on, which was a visor implanted in the back of his head stretching over his forehead with glowing red eye vision, and a black silk shirt over a pair of arm and shoulder blades on each arm, lined up with spikes stretching down each sleeve in the form of a spiral. "but just what you supposed to do with a bitch again? You slap it right back, plain and simple."
"I think I'm gonna slap you instead," Blade threatened, growling from the pain. "How's that sound?"
"Good," Reidyn agreed. "but I like this idea better!"
An all out street fight suddenly broke out as Reidyn delivered the first shot with a palm stab to the chest, followed by a spin kick. Blade felt the hit's reaction and fell from it. Blade looked up to a vastly approaching Reidyn, ready to pounce in on his injured foe.
"Come on!" Reidyn encouraged shouting. "This is like teaching little kids karate!"
As Reidyn engaged Blade, he recovered and retaliated with a spinarooni kick to the jaw. Reidyn rebounded yet spun backwards from the hit, his back facing towards Blade's direction.
"What's worse?" Blade asked Reidyn, while walking towards him. "Fighting and losing... or not fighting at all?"
Reidyn turned around in time to make good on another attack, this time, a high spin kick, which was blocked and caught with ease. Reidyn used his opposite foot as leverage, and reversed it into a somersault drop kick with it, which connected with his head and backed him into a wall. Reidyn came rushing towards Blade as soon as he rebounded from the fall, and attempted a wall jump, using Blade's upper body as leverage, yet was only successful in leaping from his chest as Blade blocked it with a pair of crossed arms. Blade saw Reidyn falling through midair, and sent him flying five feet back with a roundhouse kick, sending him on his back. Blade was vast at cashing in on such an opportunity.
From there, Reidyn wasted no time making a next move... a back flip kick right to the chin of Blade. Blade's entire head and body bounced upon Reidyn's on foot return, where he was encountered by a dragon strike kick. Blade saw the hit coming and, just seconds away form having Reidyn's shoe sole strike his forehead, blocked and grabbed the kick, and violently threw him back towards the wall just ten feet short. Reidyn attempted yet another wall jump while Blade threw a pair of glaives at him as he saw him rushing towards the end. Reidyn hit the wall and jumped it just as the two blades came an inch shy of cutting a pair of holes in his legs. Just as Blade came rushing over towards him, Reidyn performed a somersault spin off the wall and landed right on top of Blade's head as he reversed it into a hurricarrana. Blade was to become floorbound...
As soon as Blade hit the floor, Blade grabbed both legs and rolled him over and punched him twice in the face through he brickets. Blade began to hammer away at Reidyn with a couple of hard rights to the face, but Reidyn broke out of the hold prior to a 4th blow and reversed it into a hook kick floorground. It was barely even successful in getting Blade to linger from it. Blade very quickly bounced back and tried to land another punch—this time, overhanded—but Reidyn saw things his way and lept slightly over him, nailing him with a heel kick to the back of the head, yet apparently, the brawl ended—or paused—there.
"It is plain to see," Reidyn instituted. "...that after all these years of hunting vampires, you are nothing but an artifact, Blade. Using all that strength yet disregarding the one thing that matters most."
"And that would be?" Blade asked him curiously.
"Perseverance," Reidyn answered.
Blade rushed over to Reidyn, attempting to swing another right hand, yet hit nothing but thin air just a millisecond passing from where Blade swung a fist to the time it normally would hit! Reidyn magically appeared behind Blade immediately afterwards—a teleportation—and leveled him with another dragon strike to the back of his skull and spine. Blade was rather slow to shake that one off, but nonetheless recovered. Blade counterattacked with a blind knuckle straight to the head, which Reidyn countered and reversed with an arm drag takedown, but before sending him back first towards the floor, Blade countered with a couple of flips and reversed into an arm drag of his own, which was counter reversed with a flip into an arm roll. Blade couldn't believe he was losing, to an ex-familiar, of all people.
Blade rebounded off that hit, and inverted a leg sweep, once again, hitting nothing but damp air. Blade was hit while making his way back on foot with a series of seemingly invisible blows, whereas Blade was to shake them off and counterattack each one with various punches and kicks, all of which missed their target. The last one ended with a teleportation-turned blind elbow, which sent Blade body first into the floor upon impact.
Blade seemed to have taken his last fall... for the day.
"You've got a lot to learn," Reidyn inferred, walking past Blade. "Old man."
And that is where day one of training ended, with Blade's head out of the picture. He had never taken such a beating before, much less, from an ex-familiar. At first he couldn't believe it, and neither could Reidyn. He was out of his league...
TBC