Chapter Thirteen
Rock took deep breaths, putting his hands behind his head, trying to catch his breath. He was on another run. He had been feeling more energetic lately. It was possibly a result of not being able to get enough exercise on his broken leg. Still, once he caught his breath, he went running again. Once a day in the morning, he went on a jog, then in the evening, he went on a more intense run with Revy. He had been doing so much exercise lately he was sure that he would get stronger in no time.
He was lifting weights most days as well. He was a member of a martial arts school that taught multiple styles. In reality, it was just a person who had agreed to teach Rock martial arts, a Parkour teacher… Again, just someone who was good at Freerunning who had ended up in the ass end of the world. Frankly, it was amazing what he could afford given that he was careful with his money. Revy blew her money almost immediately, and had none for anything… Uncanny.
But in reality, Rock saw that she was starting to save money away on occasion. She had put $2,000,000 of the money that they had robbed from the bank away to save for a later date. Having just robbed a bank, she didn't trust the bank. But she was talking to people who could help her invest it at Rock's suggestion. He had told her that if she invested two million dollars well, and used investors who knew secrets within the stock industry, she could make a lot of money.
Rock was actually pretty proud of Revy. She was showing marked progress. She was able to recognize that saving money, while diminishing what she was able to buy in the short term, helped her in the long term. She deserved a lot of credit for being able to rise above her immediate desires like she was. He was just waiting to see how long it lasted. If it remained a lasting change, then it was definitely something that he should congratulate her for.
Was that arrogant of him? Surely no more arrogant than Revy was on an almost daily basis. But Rock liked to think that he held himself to a higher standard. Still very arrogant, but that was life for the most part in Roanapur. And in his own mind, his confidence was becoming more and more warranted. He wasn't a great fighter like Revy or even like Dutch, but he had managed to scare away a mugger, and his manipulation abilities were second to none… In Roanapur at least.
"At least that had been the case during Roberta's second rampage in Roanapur. He had promised himself that he wouldn't do it again if he could avoid it. Even Revy had admitted that his manipulative side had scared her. Honestly, it had scared him a bit too. It wasn't that his manipulative actions scared him. It was the fact that he wasn't scared of his manipulative acts that scared him. He was becoming evil, just like the rest of Roanapur.
He was becoming as corrupt as the rest of the city. His evil just wasn't worn on his sleeve like the rest of the city, so a person could miss it if they weren't paying attention. Rock sighed and started heading back to the hotel that they were staying in and hoped that Revy hadn't looted his money. It sounded like the kind of thing she would do. Having seen how safe banks were, Rock had put his money in a safe and kept it locked on almost all occasions.
As he was headed home, he decided to walk past UG Pork to see Frederica. He had long since learned the streets of Roanapur and learned which streets not to take for whatever reason. He felt his beltline and saw that his weapons were still there. As he reached the large warehouse, he walked in, hearing the grinding sound of a chainsaw ripping through flesh. Then he heard a loud, ear piercing scream from the victim.
It was odd that he didn't feel sorry for the person anymore. They had clearly done something to upset the balance in Roanapur. As well-kept as the balance was, it was also fragile in its own way. Roberta had proven that, so had Hansel and Gretel. They were people that proved that while the mobs were extraordinarily powerful, their control, based on fear as it was could easily be upset by those who weren't afraid of them and were willing to rise against them.
Suddenly, the door crashed open and a man, bleeding profusely and with muscle, bone and tendons dragging from his body crawled out of the room.
"God, no! Don't kill me! I'll give you whatever you want! Just don't fucking kill me!" The man cried.
"Save me, goddamnit!" The man demanded, looking at Rock. Frederica looked up as well and Rock was sure he heard her gasp underneath her heavy protective clothing.
Her chainsaw blade suddenly flew out of control and sliced open the man's back. He shrieked in agony as it tore through his flesh and muscle. It was a shallow wound, but it bled a lot and seemed excessively painful, even for a chainsaw wound, perhaps because it was so shallow. As Rock watched, the man seemed to be getting dizzy from blood loss. But he was still hopped up on adrenaline, and crawling away from Frederica, who followed him slowly, putting relatively minor wounds on the man as she followed.
He occasionally screamed, but he wasn't bleeding much anymore. He simply didn't have enough blood left to bleed excessively. His body was desperately trying to preserve itself by cutting down on blood flow. Even though his heart was probably racing, his chest heaving in and out with desperate breaths, he bled very little as Frederica continued to slough chunks of flesh off the man with her chainsaw. Rock had to admit that there was a certain art in her form of torture and murder.
Slowly, the man's strength waned. The adrenaline was wearing off. He was most of the way to the backdoor, the door that led to the alley that would have led to the streets where theoretically he could have lost her. Frederica had let him get that far on purpose, Rock realized. It wasn't just murder to her. She wanted him to have hope that he could escape her, and then watch as he lost it, watch as his waning strength finally deserted him and he realized he couldn't escape.
Finally, she bent down next to him, kneeling and taking off her goggles and mask.
"Do you know why you're here?" She asked. The man shook his head, his eyes wide with fear. His body was going into shock, his muscles were beginning to seize, he felt horrible painful cramps running through his body. Unless she somehow decided to let him live, he was dead. She smiled at him. She was beautiful… Terrifying, but beautiful, like an angel of death.
"You crossed the wrong people in this town. The Chinese Triad are not the people with whom to fuck. Your death will serve as a warning to others…"
"Can I… Have a last… Request?"
"Absolutely!" Frederica said with a cheerful smile. Rock raised an eyebrow. This was unlike her. Even when she was with him she never looked so cheerful.
"Could you kill me quickly? That guy has a gun. Just… You know, shoot me?"
"Mmmmm… That is a fair request… And I suppose you have suffered enough…" Frederica said in her typical scratchy hypervoice. She thought for a moment as the man gasped for breath and tried desperately to continue to crawl. Clearly he had a collapsed lung, either from a beating or from the chainsaw ripping the lung. Either way, he was dead. He just didn't know it yet.
"Request… Denied…" She said, smirking evilly at him and taking her chainsaw, revving it up with one quick pull of the cord and making controlled swings into his back, ripping out flesh and muscle first, going lower, reveling in his screams of agony as the chains gnawed on bone, then ripped into his spinal cord.
He made one final scream and then as the chainsaw made a final cut through the spinal cord, he went still, finally having died, but whether from the blood loss or suffocation or from the trauma of having his spinal cord ripped apart like that, Rock didn't know. Either way, it didn't really matter. He was dead and that was all there was to it. Finally, Frederica pulled off her smock and mask and looked at Rock with a heavy blush.
"When exactly did you come in?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.
"Well… A few seconds before your latest job burst through the door and started crawling away from you. I heard him cursing and begging you not to kill him and then he came through the door and you followed… There was… Something kind of… Artistic about the way you killed him."
"Artistic? I suppose so. You… Really think it was artistic?"
"Grotesque, horrifying, upsetting, but yes, artistic. The way you were able to keep him alive so long while you tortured him… Oh, God, listen to me! I'm turning into a monster!" Rock muttered, finally bursting into laughter when he realized how funny he found all of this. Frederica was laughing as well. After a moment, Rock closed the distance between them and kissed her.
It wasn't like any of their past kisses. This kiss was passionate, wild… Frederica seemed to pick up on the passion as well, a blush shading her fair skin as her hands reached around Rock's back, pulling him closer to her, not wanting there to be even a centimeter separating them. Rock separated them, pulling Frederica down on the floor, removing the long sleeved grey and purple shirt she always wore. Frederica blushed, covering herself.
"You look beautiful, Frederica…" Rock said. He felt a bit like Revy right now. The smell of blood and death was kind of a turn on. It was weird. He knew that he had been corrupted by the City of the Dead. But he never thought he was this far gone until now. Kissing Frederica, wiping some of the blood off her face, he smiled gently at her, unbuttoning his own shirt and throwing it aside. He didn't even notice that it landed in a puddle of blood.
Frederica's hands slowly, shakily ran themselves over Rock's chest. Rock was hardly what Frederica would consider muscular. But she noticed that he was becoming stronger by the day still. Rock sighed, reaching around and unhooking Frederica's bra, throwing it to the ground.
"Hey… I…"
"You didn't think we could do this without taking our clothes off, did you?" Rock asked with a good natured laugh. Frederica turned a deeper shade of red, not answering. In some ways, she wished they could… She never considered herself overly beautiful. She had far too much muscle to be considered attractive to most men who seemed stuck in a time when women who were weak, pale and in need of rescue were more attractive…
"Is that still the way it is where you come from?"
"Japan? Is what still the way it is?" Rock asked. Frederica blushed, not wanting to say it. But now she had started, she couldn't just stop.
"Do men still prefer weak women in Japan?"
"Some do… I guess…" Rock said. "Personally, I find your strength beautiful in itself." He finished, kissing her tenderly, the lust and passion dulled down, but the love still there. Frederica nodded, not quite meeting Rock's gaze. Slowly, his hands made their way down to her skirt, pulling it down along with her underwear, leaving her completely naked. He kissed her stomach gently, drawing a gasp from between Frederica's lips as her hands reached for Rock's head but drew back just as quickly.
His lips went lower to her pussy, kissing her clit. Suddenly, a jolt of pleasure assaulted Frederica. She had never felt it this strong. She played around by herself or even with Shenhua when they were both in the mood. But it had never felt quite like this. This felt special. She could try to convince herself that it was just sex. But it wasn't.
"Stop… I'm completely naked and you still have your pants on… Something doesn't seem quite right about this…" Frederica said with a smirk. It was Rock's turn to blush now. Frederica actually laughed, a gravelly, almost grating sound through her Ultravoice. It was cute to see Rock, who tried to stay so composed blushing. He nodded and pulled his pants down, revealing that he was already rock hard… Frederica rolled her eyes at the pun that had just crossed her mind.
After a moment, Rock went back to what he was doing, flicking her clit with his tongue, drawing a raspy cry from Frederica. He wasn't done, though, he continued to attack her. Suddenly, her hands grasped his head, pulling it in until she orgasmed harder than ever before, causing her to groan loudly with the spasms of pleasure coursing through her. After a moment, Rock pulled away, smiling at her.
Frederica leaned in, kissing Rock tenderly, her hand going down to his penis, stroking it slowly, occasionally twisting and finally, even after resisting for a while, Rock came, groaning his release. The two lovers kissed again, Frederica wiping Rock's release off on the smock, resolving that she would wash it later. She needed to clean it anyway. It had been a while. Frederica smirked, though, seeing that she was doing something right.
Rock kissed Frederica again, holding her gently as he pulled a condom out of his wallet. He had bought a box of them recently when he realized that he might need them in the near future. Inching toward her, he prodded a few times, listening with satisfaction to her breath hitching in her chest. Finally, he pushed into her, moving slowly, deliberately, watching between nerves and pleasure as he saw her expression as he buried himself inside her.
He saw a mix of pain and pleasure on her features, tears filling her blue eyes. Slowly, Rock leaned down, kissing Frederica and began moving slowly inside her. At first, Frederica moaned lightly as he buried himself in her. She was bleeding. She really had been a virgin up to that point. For a moment, he stopped, staying still inside her, holding her close to him to comfort her. After a moment, he began moving again, drawing gasps of pleasure from Frederica.
For a moment, she was still caught between pleasure and pain. But slowly, her expression changed to one of pure ecstasy. For long moments, the two moved together, Frederica crying out Rock's name wordlessly, not wanting to ruin the moment with her electrolarynx. It had always been part of her gimmick so to speak. Her voice scared people, especially when it was followed up by a chainsaw wielding madwoman. So she breathed sighs and cries of pure pleasure, not trusting her voice.
Finally, though, as their moment reached its peak, she screamed Rock's name, groaning her release, her nails digging into Rock's back, unable to contain her strength, her walls tightening. Clearly, Rock had been holding it in until that point because he yelled Frederica's name as well, gasping for breath as his back relaxed after the powerful feeling subsided and the two fell to the floor, holding each other, kissing. For a short while, they fell asleep in each other's arms.
