Chapter 24: Wrath
A/N: Ugh, sorry for the wait. Same reasons as usual, won't bore you all with a long lecture that I've recited like 10 times before. And also this chapter took much longer than I expected to write as I wasn't entirely certain what I was gonna do. Like, I had a general idea of where I was gonna take it, but I just wasn't sure what to do with it, or whatever.
If you couldn't tell already, this chapter is going to be nuts. Brace yourself.
I found myself back down in the feline city. Having absolutely no idea what could happen at any moment, I put myself as on edge as possible and made my way to the metro.
I took the train we used to normally take, noticing in mild surprise that I hadn't received any nasty reception yet.
I took a look at the other cats on the train.
Some were talking on the phone, some were reading newspapers or books, some were playing games on their phones, others were just staring out the window. It seemed normal... too normal. Because I knew for a fact that the Empress didn't let our failure go unnoticed. And even before this, most of them still had this look of barely contained resentment that never went away.
So they must've been hiding something.
When the trained reached its stop at the Yellow Overpass, I got out and ran to the Main Hub.
There seemed to be an extra high amount of cats around...
I kept one hand firmly on the hand of my baton as I made my way to the Empress' jewelry store. The curtains were closed, but I could see that the lights were off. Yet the door was unlocked.
This screamed 'trap' from a mile away.
Yet I walked in anyway.
I heard the door slam behind me, and I sighed.
"Well... I already know what's going to happen," I muttered, "I screwed up."
"That..."
The lights turned on, revealing Empress holding a sheathed katana.
... Oh dear...
"... is the largest understatement I've heard in my life."
She unsheathed the katana and in a flash swung the tip of it at me, its tip barely missing my throat.
One look told me that it'd only take a single bad hit from this thing to end me.
"I was going to hunt you down myself, both of you, but for once you've actually made my life easier, running right back into my paws yet again," She cackled darkly.
I gulped and looked around. There was a wall of cats sitting by the entrance, even if I wanted to there'd be no way out of this.
I raised my hands in surrender. As much as I'd love to fight, I'd just get myself killed before I could even attempt to solve anything.
"Smart," She mocked, sheathing the katana again.
She snapped her fingers, and in the blink of an eye I had my arms bound and a blindfold placed over me.
"... But don't think for a second that you'll be getting out of this in one piece."
I was shoved along for a long time, occasionally being spun to disorient me, before feeling all of my possessions being taken away, unbound, shoved into a chair, and bound to said chair.
When the blindfold was taken off, I found myself in some dark room. I couldn't see anything in my surroundings.
"Uh..." I muttered, "This seems familiar."
I heard evil laughter, and a light turned on, revealing me to be in some random storage room with the Empress and multiple of her goons.
"Consider yourself lucky," She said, "Because I'm not going to kill you... or at least not yet. Maybe you'll get luckier."
I raised an eyebrow.
"What's the catch?" I questioned, "Because we both know it wouldn't make sense for me to be let off scot-free. That's not how you work."
She grinned.
"I was originally going to torture you in front of a live audience... but I don't need the mess, and..." She said, before beginning to cackle evilly.
I clenched my fists, knowing she was planning something horrible.
"I'm still going to make you wish you were dead, but I know a far better way to do so," She taunted, "Something a little bit more... well... personal."
"What do you mean?" I hissed.
She just walked toward the entrance of the room, her goons following her.
"Let's just say I'll be pulling off a 'hat trick'."
She shut off the light and left, returning me to pitch blackness.
Even after I WILLINGLY went into her custody...
"... I'm going to annihilate that megalomaniacal-" I said, stopping myself before I could say anything foul.
I took a deep breath, feeling around for my baton in case they somehow missed it.
... They didn't. And they'd taken all of my badges, too.
I had no way of escaping. No shadow badge to phase through into the shadows, no nothing.
"Well, looks like someone's gotten themselves into quite a situation, haven't they?"
That was Traveller's voice.
I sighed.
"And I have no way to get out, either," I said, "No badges to use, and I probably wont be able to make or use a portal when I'm tied to a chair."
"Already taken care of," He said, and I heard multiple slashing noises. I then felt the ropes tying me to the chair fall off.
I got up, stretched, and flicked on the light, seeing him standing in the corner of the room.
He flicked one of my badges up into the air and caught it repeatedly.
"Those simpletons really don't do well at keeping valuable items secure," He chuckled, "Catch."
He then proceeded to toss me all of my items. Including a certain charm, necklace, and eyepatch that I'd nearly forgotten about.
"Empress will know soon that I've escaped, and she'll send her entire gang after me. Probably even more aggressively than last time," I said, "I need to get the hell out of here, I can't cheat death again."
Traveller grinned mischievously.
"I don't think you'll need to worry about that."
"Why's that-"
An intercom turned on.
"All employees return to the main hub at once! Anyone who fails to show up will share the same fate as the betrayer!"
"I'm guessing she's referring to me?" I assumed, "But, uh... what did you do?"
"Let's just say I gave the local law enforcement the push they needed to do their jobs," He said.
I grinned.
"So a police raid, eh?" I asked, "Sure was a long time coming."
"You're correct, though, the Empress will know that you've escaped, and considering how much she hates you, I would bet she will try to confront you herself. I'd help you escape further, but..."
"This needs to end here and now," I said, "Or she'll hunt us down forever."
He nodded.
"Good luck," He said, then disappeared.
I equipped my Shadow Badge, Megaton Badge, and Whirlwind Badge. I'd need combat boosts far more than anything else. I also put on the charm and necklace. Not that I thought they'd be of any use here, but you never know.
And with that, I twirled my baton around, took a deep breath, and charged through the door.
I found myself running through hallways again. There wasn't anyone else around, likely because everyone was booking it to the main hub.
Well, it made escaping a lot easier.
After a long time of running, I found myself in the Green Clean station, of all places. But, now that I had a familiar sight, I navigated to the entrance of the station and peered out.
It was quite a sight.
Empress was in the center of the hub, shouting orders.
After quite some time of watching, she snapped her fingers and all the cats bolted, running for many different stations. I had to dive to cover as many cats came to the Green Clean station. Judging that there was a police raid coming, I assumed that she'd ordered them to get to various different parts of the metro to defend it.
... But that left her wide open.
She was completely alone now.
Maybe I could sneak up on her and-
She looked right at me.
How'd she even know I was there? The hub was huge, and nobody'd even saw me beforehand!
I sighed and jumped down.
"... If you were smart, you would've stayed strapped to that chair," She said calmly.
"You threaten the one person I care about most and expect me to care about my own safety?" I scoffed, "But I understand the confusion, because you don't give a damn about anybody but yourself."
She grinned.
"Take a look around you. See what you've gotten yourself into," She mocked.
I looked around.
All exits were now blocked by cats. It was a diversion.
... Of course it was.
But they weren't closing in to attack, which was odd.
"Seeing how much you've made it your mission to anger me as much as possible, I thought I'd give you a reward for it," She cackled, "You'll have the honour of being ended by me personally."
I smirked.
"You think it'll be that easy, huh?" I snorted.
"Should you beat me, which I highly doubt you will, my employees will attack. I'm merely playing with my food," She said, unsheathing her katana.
I took a battle stance.
"Don't disappoint me."
She charged at me with her katana.
I saw this coming from a mile away and blocked it with my baton, knocking her off balance.
"Predictable."
I countered viciously with a whirlwind strike, knocking her back a few meters.
She caught herself, saying nothing. then threw a stream of kunai at me, which I'd also been expecting and sidestepped accordingly.
She then proceeded to jump backwards and threw a bunch of things I couldn't see into the air, none of them landing on me but landing near me.
They then started to beep... they were freaking grenades!
I quickly dove out of the way before the explosives could annihilate me.
Empress attempted to dash at me again, thinking I'd let myself open, but I quickly pressed low to the ground, feeling air rush through my hair as the blade barely missed me.
I then quickly kicked outward, knocking her onto the ground, then jumped back onto my feet and began a Megaton attack. She rolled out of the way before it could hit her, getting up in the blink of an eye.
She pulled out a diamond-tipped rocket launcher and pointed it directly upward, shooting out four rockets, which quickly did a 90 degree turn in the air and pointed directly at me.
"Good grief!" I growled as I quickly rolled out of the way. I took a quick glance to make sure they were still following me, which they were, then jumped out of the way of both the rockets and a few more kunai that the Empress had thrown, jumping over her head and smacking her on her forehead as I landed. I heard rockets exploding midair.
She took a step back, placing her paws to her forehead in a slightly dazed manner, then shook her head and stared at me.
I took a defensive stance, hoping it'd intimidate her somewhat.
"Well, it seems I underestimated you," She said.
"I warned you this wouldn't be an easy battle," I replied.
She laughed.
"Oh, please. I'm just getting start-"
A loud boom was heard.
"They're here!"
"What?" I spat, then looked around to see a few policecats entering the area from the Bluefin Tunnel.
Empress growled.
"I thought I had you all TAKING CARE OF THIS!" She roared, "Get them out of my sight!"
The cats blocking the exits all bolted to the Bluefin Tunnel to repress the police raid.
I turned back to the Empress with a grin.
"It's just you and me, now."
"Tch. So be it. I can deal with you and the police easily," She growled.
"Prove it, then!" I taunted.
"Gladly."
She took an offensive stance with her katana, and charged.
Instead of charging directly at me like I'd expected, though, she charged behind me, leaving me with barely any time to react before she charged again.
She clearly expected it to work, because she was surprised when she realized it'd failed. It left me with just enough time to hit her with another whirlwind strike.
She managed to toss a grenade at me while she was being knocked back, and it stuck to my sweater like glue.
I yelled profanities as I dove into the ground, hoping that the small amount of shade the area had would be enough to merge with.
I let out a sigh of relief as it did, then hopped back out quickly.
The Shadow Badge had saved my life.
I didn't have time to dwell on it before Empress attempted to throw some more kunai at me before charging again. I then swung at her, but stopped as she then proceeded to take out a FREAKING GOLDEN FLAMETHROWER and spun around. I had to jump out of the way to avoid the ring of fire that came with it.
"How many weapons do you freaking have?!" I shouted.
She just laughed.
I took my chance as she was putting the weapon away to lunge at her with my baton.
... Except she grabbed my baton and tore it out of my grasp before kicking me hard enough to send me flying across the hub and landing painfully on my back.
"... Should've been expecting that..." I muttered to myself, ignoring the pain in my ribs and getting up.
"Looks like that baton of yours is mine now," Empress taunted, "It's time to accept your death."
I grinned.
Seemed like she didn't know that a certain badge of mine had another use.
"I don't need a baton to fight," I chuckled, "Not anymore."
I conjured a ball of shadowflame and threw it at her.
She was so shocked that she didn't do anything to stop it, colliding straight with her face and knocking her katana out of her hand.
I dove for it and threw it across the arena.
"Now we're even," I said, "No melee weapon for either of us."
She brandished her diamond tipped claws, attempting to intimidate me.
"Now you'll get bloodstains on my coat..." She scoffed.
I gathered more shadow into my hands, feeling the darkness envelop around me.
"You're gonna have a lot more to worry about than that when I'm done with you."
"Enough talk! It's time for you to die!" She roared, taking out her rocket launcher and shooting more rockets than I could count into the air. How did she not need to reload it?!
Instead of following me, then spread out into the air and proceeded to drop down from the sky, a rain of explosives.
I had to bolt out of the way of many rockets as they began to reach the ground, and I saw Empress about to throw more kunai at me.
I dove through the ground into the shadows and appeared behind her, focusing much of my shadow power into my fist and punching her as hard as I could.
She screamed in pain and was punted back a few meters.
"You... you..." She muttered as she slowly got up, then brought out a new weapon... a CHAINGUN. "I'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR!"
She revved up the chaingun. No way I'd be able to dodge that... I had to end this here and now.
I bolted toward her as fast as I could, jumped over her just as the gun began firing, and kicked her on the way up to knock the gun out of her hands.
"I'd say it's nothing personal..."
I saw my baton in the air and grabbed it...
"but you made it personal when you threatened my daughter."
I infused every ounce of power into my baton and activated all of my badges at once as I swung it, hitting her so hard it shook the ground.
The dark power released from my body, and with it almost every ounce of energy I had.
I fell on one knee, barely having enough energy to raise my head and see what happened to Empress.
She was on the ground, barely moving.
"Wh-..." She muttered, "Wh-what... are you...?"
I managed to stand up, and I looked down at her.
"Honestly?" I said, "I don't know anymore."
I walked over to her, questioning what I should do.
Oh, I had the perfect idea.
I placed my foot on her back, forcing her down into the ground.
"Regardless of what I am, you and I are gonna sit and wait here until the police manage to get here, then they'll arrest you and I'll never have to worry about you threatening me or my family ever again," I taunted.
She growled and attempted to throw me off of her, but I merely pressed down harder. She was too weak to do anything anyway.
"Be happy I don't kill you," I spat, "You know I damn well should."
"I'd rather die!" She grumbled.
She slowly exhausted herself and proceeded to just growl.
I looked around to see how it was going.
The police had arrived en masse and were clashing fiercely with the Nyakuza cats, but I knew that they had the upper hand. It even seemed like they had military support! They were pouring in from ALL stations.
I sighed with relief. The Nyakuza was no more.
Just then, I heard faint laughter.
Laughter that sent chills down my spine...
Laughter again. This time louder. It sounded weirdly familiar.
"Who's there?" I asked.
More laughter.
My eyes widened as I realized something about the laughter. Something horrible.
It was my own voice...
A twisted, demonic version of it.
A searing pain erupted in my chest, causing me to fall backwards.
It was the most painful thing I'd experienced in my life.
Pure. Unbridled. Agony.
That was all I knew for the next ten seconds.
It then calmed down, and I felt absolutely drained. I didn't even know I was screaming until it sopped.
I opened my eyes and stared in horror at what was staring back.
A shadow of me. With blood red eyes, exact same clothes but black, even a dark version of my own baton. It floated in the air in front of me with a sadistic grin.
"W-what the hell... is this?!" I shouted.
"I warned you not to forget... yet you did," It replied, "If you must know... I have been biding my time, examining you, studying how to create the perfect vessel for the shadow in this realm. I hadn't been able to conjure a physical form before, but this battle has given me the final bit of knowledge about you that I need."
I knew exactly what was happening now...
"I should've known that wasn't just a dream..." I muttered.
"Yes... and now that my goal is complete, I have no need for you anymore. Your rage, your darkness, albeit unfathomable, you repress it in favour of weak emotions like joy and love. One like that is no champion for darkness. Thus, I have taken your dark energy and refined it, given it form, combined with the raw power of shadows itself to create what I am now. I am the ultimate entity, the vessel of void, the emperor of emptiness, the duke of darkness. And you are in my way."
I chuckled.
"But you're made of shadow, eh?" I taunted, "So that means you're under my-"
It grinned again, flashing a certain something between its fingers.
My damn Shadow Badge!
"... Shit..."
"As I am not a living being myself, I cannot use this badge for my own purposes... not that I would need to," It explained, then turned around to face Empress. "I see a being that suits my badge far more."
Nononononononono!
I got up as fast as I could and bolted toward my doppelganger.
It whipped around and hit me with its baton before I could react.
I felt a dark, searing pain all through my upper body as I was thrown back.
I couldn't get up... I didn't have the strength to.
"Weak, without my power," It scoffed, "How foolish I was to think you would make a fine champion..."
It tossed the badge to the Empress, who had gotten up and caught it before placing it on her coat.
She was enveloped in a dark aura immediately.
She slowly walked over and grabbed her katana off the ground with a dark cackle, walking over to me.
"This... this isn't fair..." I growled.
She chuckled and raised the katana above her head to strike.
I attempted to get up with all of my might, before collapsing to the ground again.
They both said the same line in unison:
"Nothing ever is."
I closed my eyes, praying that at least Hailey could save herself from Empress' dark wrath.
A/N: Sorry, not sorry. Cliffhangers are cool, okay? I'll try to get the next chapter out super fast to not keep you all waiting super long.
And to recap... so, a new foe emerges. A dark doppelganger of Markus with unfathomable power (who I've given the clever name Darkus), as the Shadow Badge deemed him unworthy of wielding its power anymore. And Empress now has the badge instead, and seems to be able to use it as good as him if not better?
How the PECK is he gonna make it out of this one?! Or is he narrating from the grave...?
Phantaum: It appears so. We'll see what happens.
Welp... I'll see you all next chapter. Things are about to get catastrophic.
