Hey, here is the last chapter in the Copperhead Arc with how Keith beats him along with the fate of Kite. Please enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 31: Detonation Road pt 3.

Keith hung his head, gripping onto his wounded arm as he tried to process what he'd heard. "Boss...Kite…" he whispered, dropping to his knees.

Tom smirked at the display, walking towards his downed enemy until he loomed over Keith. "You really thought you could beat me with your stupid mind?" Tom asked. He tossed his hat aside, ready to laugh at the pitiful man. But to his shock, Keith was the one who began to laugh. Tom's cocky expression quickly shifted into a furious glare, and he shrieked, "What's so funny, you little shit?!"

"I-I knew you would come to finish me off soon," Keith said, smiling in spite of the blood covering his face.

"Oh, and how did you figure that one out, Sherlock?" Tom asked in a mocking tone, pulling at his hair until their eyes met. While his expression had calmed, his eyes still burned with the readiness to kill.

"For starters, you listened to someone say how much ammo they have left," he said, spitting out a bullet directly into his revolver. In one motion, he closed it, aimed up towards Tom's face, and fired.

Tom's eyes widened in shock, jumping away out of reflex. The bullet grazed his hair and slammed into the wall behind him. Before he could collect himself, Rhinestone Cowboy manifested from Keith, swinging its knife at Tom.

Copperhead Road launched an arm towards its user, putting dozens of snakes between him and Rhinestone Cowboy. While the slash was able to kill several of them, it wasn't enough to do any noticeable damage. Tom slipped back out of Keith's range, where Rhinestone Cowboy wouldn't be able to to hurt him with any close-range attacks.

"You are a tricky one," Tom said, regaining both his composure and his smirk. He eyed his opponent and settled into a pose. "But your road ends here."

Copperhead Road lifted his hands up and launched several snakes towards Keith. Rhinestone Cowboy tried to take them out, but the sheer number was too great for it to hold off. Keith soon found himself surrounded by a large circle of snakes, coiling around him to keep him in place. Keith fought with all of his strength to move his body. Yet his body failed him, and he fell into a heap on the ground, where the snakes soon covered him completely.

Simultaneously, the numerous snakes began beeping. The remaining snakes slithered into position in front of Tom, keeping him safe as a massive explosion rang out through the building. Tom waved at Copperhead Road, dispersing the snakes so that he could look at the searing crater on the floor. His smirk widened, and he turned to walk away from the wreckage. "It was high noon for you, cowboy."

"Not yet," a voice rang out. Tom shot his head back towards the building to find Kite holding a badly hurt Keith. Renegades uncurled itself from Keith's shirt, returning to the armor that completely covered Kite's body. Meanwhile, Tom's eyes were filled with confusion, locked tightly on the leader of his enemies.

"You did well flushing him out. Rest now. We'll get Mary to heal you up in no time," Kite said, gently lowering Keith to an undamaged section of the floor. He hopped over the wall, slowly walking towards Tom as though completely unworried.

"H-how did you survive?" Tom asked, his confusion quickly transforming into fury at Kite's casual behavior. Even as he raised his voice, his mind scrambled for any explanation, any detail that he might have overlooked. "Not even your Stand could withstand that much force at the same time!"

"You really think I'm stupid enough to not talk to the locals? I had to cut through buildings to get to the house, and with so many people inside, I figured somebody would have to know about her or her family. But nobody had ever seen her before," Kite explained. "By the time we got to the house, I already knew it was a trap. I was listening for any sign of the beeping, so when I heard it coming from the kid, I tossed her upstairs and cut my way into the basement. Congratulations; your grand plan managed to give me a bruise."

After hearing all this, Tom was left speechless. He slowly took a step back, but Kite advanced just as quickly. "Oh no. You're not getting out of here after what you did to these people. What you did to my friend."

"L-look, just join us and let us have the girl," Tom pleaded, sweat dripping down his face at the mere sight of Kite's armor. "W-we'll let you all go back home, no questions asked. Those guys will listen to you .You could come up with something, say you helped her find her true place."

Kite's eyes were hidden behind the vizor, leaving Tom unsure of the man's intentions.

"You know, I've been on this trip with my friends for two long months. We've fought a lot of people along the way," Kite said, looking at him, not noticing the movement behind him as several snakes readied themselves to launch a sneak attack.

"Y-yeah," Tom stammered, trying to keep Kite's eyes off the snakes as they fell into position. "And you can just turn around and walk away with no hard feelings."

"But you have to be the worst of all of them if you think we're walking away. After all this, you think we'd abandon Mary just for the right to live as we like?" Kite said, his visor retreating to reveal grey eyes burning with anger. "You're nothing but the scum of the scum."

"Oh, but this scum got you!" Tom yelled. The snakes launched themselves towards Kite, who spun around to cut every last one with a single swipe. Each had been sliced through their skulls, deactivating their bombs and allowing Kite to walk forwards unhindered. Tom stumbled back a few feet before tripping on some debris and falling to the ground, face twisting with terror.

Suddenly, the fear dissolved, becoming a smirk directed right at Kite. "Move one step closer, and your friend's head will be separated from his shoulders."

Kite spun around to find snakes surrounding Keith. His teeth clenched tightly, and he turned back to Tom, who was brushing dirt off his shirt. "I can't believe you fell for the pleading trick," Tom said mockingly, walking towards his enemy slowly, more carefully than before. "Remove your Stand, or I kill him here and now, without question."

Kite let out a long sigh before his armor melted away, revealing his clothes and unprotected body. "You really are just scum," he said, looking at Tom with disdain. Tom's lips curled back at the insult, punching him hard in the stomach, sending the air rushing out of Kite's lungs. Before he could take a breath, Tom followed up with a punch to the jaw, knocking his face smashed into the dirt. Kite rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up, his teeth clenched with barely restrained rage.

"Oh, careful. Your friend's neck is looking pretty appetizing," Tom said, pointing towards the wall that Keith was laying against. Kite's gaze turned to his friend, trying to fight his urge to do anything. A chuckle came from beside him, just before Tom's boot smashed into his stomach. The force lifted him into the air, and gravity brought him crashing back to earth with a pained groan. "Now, take me to where Mary is. If you do, I'll make sure you're both taken care of after she finishes with the Major. If I'm feeling generous, that is."

Kite forced himself to his knees, staring at Tom with open hostility. As he slowly stood up, blood running from his mouth, his face formed an expression that Tom wasn't expecting. Kite smirked at him. "I think my friend's reaction would be perfect. No way in hell."

"Your pride just cost your friend his life." Tom said, activating his Stand, only for nothing to happen. His eyes widened in shock, and he spun towards the wall to see the snakes cut in half. Small spikes of metal shone crimson around them. "H-h-how did you-?"

"Oh, I don't have to summon my Stand in suit form to use it. While you were taking a few cheap shots, it was creeping towards the pipes in the wall. My Stand controls metal, so it wasn't hard to sneak up on them from there," Kite explained as the strands of Renegades reformed around him. The visor covered his face once more, but Tom could still feel his eyes staring at him. The thought made him nervous, and he stepped back, his Stand moving between them to protect him.

"C-c-come on, it's not really worth fighting, is it? You know that my defenses are perfect," Tom managed, slowly increasing the distance between them. He tried to regain his smirk, though it was noticeably shakier than before. "Are you ready for me to finish you off?"

Kite cocked his head in confusion. "'Finish me off,' huh? I thought you would be more concerned about this," he said, opening his hands to reveal several portions of Renegades missing. Tom's eyes narrowed at the gaps. They were shaped exactly like bullets.

"Draw." As Keith's voice rang out from behind him, Tom spun around. Keith was holding both of his revolvers, and began firing shot after shot, until his chest was filled with holes and the wall behind him was covered in shards of metal. Tom stumbled back, numbly registering the pained grin Keith was wearing. He barely seemed able to stand up, but he forced himself to stand tall.

He twirled his revolvers around until they fell neatly into his holsters. Placing his thumbs against his belt, he held the pose until his legs finally gave way. Keith fell into Kite's waiting arms with a loud groan, trying to focus on his friend's smile.

"You did great, Keith," he murmured. He held his friend close as they mutually watched the last mark of their victory; Copperhead Road dissolving into dust.

Hideous laughter then began to echo through the alleyway. Kite gently turned Keith in his arms so the two could see Tom, who continued to cackle even as he coughed up blood. "Y-you two are f-fools," he rasped, his eyes slowly becoming glassy as the life faded out of his body. "The Major still has one last man in his army. His Stand is stronger than any of us, and he only gave us thirty minutes to report back to him. Now he's gonna make his move. Nobody can stop..."

"What's his power?" Kite demanded, moving towards Tom as though ready to attack him. He soon realized how pointless that would be as Tom's chest stopped moving, and his eyes became blank. He was gone from this world, but he left with a smile on his face.

"Come on Kite, let's meet the others before I join him six feet under," Keith said, jolting Kite back to reality. He nodded hurriedly, putting his arm over his shoulder and moving back towards their meeting place. His expression was filled with worry at the thought of another fight, wondering exactly what power could've inspired such confidence from Tom. He quickly decided that he couldn't worry about that at the moment; he needed to get Keith back to Mary and her Stand before they died of the current injuries.

The sun was high overhead. People still walked around in front of the mansion, and their shadows revealed the time; it was noon. Tom and Doug had run out of time.

"Well, they had their chance," Stu said, looking up from the ground towards the large crowds of people. He gave a long sigh, then stood up from a bench and began walking along the sidewalk. His face was covered in shadow, cast by a figure in a suit-like outfit. Long sleeves and pants covered its ocean blue skin, and its boots spiked upwards. Its most defining feature, however, was the diver-esque head piece that concealed its face. As the two walked through the crowd, people began to fall over in their wake, eyes unseeing and bodies mummified.

TBC.

That is it for this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it, only a few more chapters until the final battle.