Author's Notes: OK well I finished this yesterday, but fanfiction was being dumb and wouldn't upload the document. I'm about two chapters behind schedule now, but, on the bright side, this is my last week of university before Christmas, so I'll soon have time to catch up :D. I know this is taking on more serious tones, but it is approaching the final climax, also for those wondering why the bad guys don't all gang up at once, I hope I got that here, but they're not exactly best of friends, hehe. Anyway, enjoy :).
----
Several minutes had passed since their last battle, and the trio were still where last we left them, in the void.
"Hey Reiko?" Zone broke the silence, having moved over to the vampire, who was still lying on the ground and recovering from their last battle.
"Yes Zone?" he replied, turning his head a bit to the side to look at him.
"Do you think… We really have a chance?" the rodent was sat a couple of feet from his side, sitting back a little, also recuperating from their previous encounter, though it had taken less out of him than the vampire.
"A chance to what?" Reiko asked in return, mind still somewhat hazy.
"You know, a chance to beat her. Do you think we have any hope?" Zone said, looking up at him earnestly.
Reiko hesitated to answer, his eyes drifting to look straight up again, the chaotic dance of colour and form-defying pattern around them soothing, to a relaxed mind. "I don't truly know, we've been told we have, but I can't say, for certain. Are you having regrets?" he replied after a moment's thought, looking back at Zone.
The hamster smiled a weary but confident grin and slowly shook his head. "Nah, no regrets. I knew it was going to be hard and that we might not make it from the outset, even if things have gone beyond what I had expected. Sure sometimes I don't like how things are going, but I don't regret them, it wouldn't be much of a challenge without adversity would it?" he answered.
"That's true…" Reiko agreed with a slow nod. "So you're not afraid?" after all they had been through, he wouldn't blame him. Twice recently they'd scarcely avoided defeat. Once was draining enough, and twice made it feel like it should be over, not to mention they were promised a third fight before they even got to their true enemy. It really took a toll, which was why they were still here, and not through the open portals.
This time the hamster chuckled. "Hehe, look at me Reiko. I'm a half-foot tall rodent; people could grind my life out under their heel. I'm almost always afraid somewhere inside, I just try not to let it rule me. The more you succumb to the fear of death, the less alive you are, or at least I think. Yeah I'm afraid, but fear's just another obstacle to overcome, if you ask me. What about you, how do you see it?" he asked in return.
"Me?" Reiko raised his head in surprise, with a little difficulty, unaccustomed to such a personal question. Zone gave a simple nod of confirmation though, so he answered, "I guess to put it formally, the world is so much vaster than us, and there's so many things worth fighting for, even worth dying for. Eventually we all die, I think it's best to die for something you believe in".
Zone sat through this in silence, absorbing the different perspective. With a sudden start he laughed, "Haha, I just thought, even though we come at it from opposite directions we reach basically the same conclusion".
Reiko quirked his brow at this, but then it dawned on them that they sort of did. "You're right. You and me agreeing, that's a little scary" he joked with understated humour.
"It is" Zone agreed. Realising what he was doing, he added "You're still a boring broody stiff-ass, though", being friendlily abusive in a way few could pull off, but Zone was among them, his wry grin free of malice.
"And you're still a reckless, immature smart-ass" Reiko replied with and equal blend of honesty and acceptance of the facts. Nobody was perfect, after all.
"Hehe, guilty as charged" Zone admitted, glad to accept and be accepted, faults and all. Turning his head, he looked over Reiko to Arson, who was sat a little way away towards the edge. "Hey Arson, you alright?" he called, the hybrid having been unusually quiet, although they all had in the aftermath of the last battle.
Arson's head snapped round as if caught out of focusing on something. "Oh, yeah, I was just watching, I uh think, it's changing, if you look close enough you can see" he answered.
"Changing?" Reiko said, propping himself up on his elbows. He and Zone scrutinized the shifting colours with acute attention. It took a minute to notice, but then they saw it, Arson was right. It was too intangible to discern at first, but by some gradual decay the pattern-defying movements seemed to be losing what little coherence they possessed, as if the chaos was slowly diffusing itself.
"That can't be good, can it?" Zone voiced what Reiko had already figured out.
"No, it is not. That is the closest we will get to a countdown clock" the vampire explained the deterioration.
"I guess, we should get moving, huh?" Zone said, standing up and flexing his limbs experimentally. He was glad to find he could move more or less fine, the previous battle having incurred no physical harm on them. That hadn't made it any less deadly, though, the Blind Seer having attacked their very essence. They could recover from it, as it was trauma not injury, but how much the soul could endure before being extinguished, Zone didn't want to dwell on. "Can you move OK?" this was directed at Reiko, who had taken a worse toll.
Reiko tried, the difficulty of it a very unusual kind. Physically, his body was struggling somewhat from its exertions thus far, but it was nothing he couldn't cope with, yet. The challenge was in summoning the will to, it was like spending hours pouring effort into something, only to see it destroyed and have to start from scratch, it was so tempting to just, not bother, not care.
Zone watched Reiko, and felt an awkward sense of inadequacy at the fact he couldn't do a simple thing like give his friend a hand up. Before he could think of anything to say though, something grasped Reiko's arm.
"Wanna lift?" it was Arson, an earnestly helpful expression on his face. Reiko nodded, and with a simple yet meaningful gesture, the teenager pulled him to his feet. Talking to Zone had been therapeutic, and this last basic but cooperative act helped Reiko cleanse out the last disheartening shadows lingering inside him.
"Thank you Arson" Reiko said with rejuvenating spirit, to which the hybrid returned a bright if quiet smile.
"So I guess this means you think we have a chance?" Zone asked.
"I don't know if we will or can succeed, but I know we can try, thus we have hope" Reiko nodded in reply.
"Good enough for me" Zone said, reassured. "As long as I have something to aim for, overwhelming odds just make the victory that much sweeter" he enthused.
"Excellent, what about you Arson?" Reiko turned to the hybrid.
Arson blinked and turned to him again as if distracted from something, but smiled and said "No giving up".
Reiko hesitated briefly, noticing Arson seemed uncharacteristically laconic. He considered asking what was troubling him, but his smiles and what words he did say were sincere, so he decided to give him his rightful privacy. "Can I have the guide, Arson?" he asked, to which he got a nod, and the strategy guide in his hand.
Some brief discussion ensued, and then they each went their separate ways into the three awaiting portals…
----
Reiko stumbled forwards as the light faded, staggering for balance as he moved with unusual haste. His legs bent, buckled, and pleaded to give out from the awkward angle, but he gritted his teeth and pushed, muscles burning but grudgingly responding as he broke into a run.
Taking no time to enjoy the scenery, the vampire fought to accelerate, charging along the stone path. There was a demon ahead of him, but he didn't even take the time to register what type. It was drawing its breath in, but the sandstorm attack it blasted out was diverted upwards as Reiko swung his staff around from his back and leapt, transferring all his kinetic energy up its length to crack the monster under the jaw. It was sent somersaulting over onto its front, and a moment later Reiko landed on its back, wobbling a little with the difficulty of balancing. Then he launched them skidding across the floor by pushing his pole against it.
Practically canoeing them up the path towards a half-collapsed set of stairs, Reiko was given all of a brief moment to think. Usually the taciturn, thoughtful one amongst them, it seemed unusual that he had ended up with this task, racing along stone paths and plateaus using demons as surfboards trying to beat the clock to the Fragment at the other end. However he was also the fastest of them; Arson was quick but Reiko more so, and while Zone could be surprisingly agile and fast he was no match for the vampire over long distance.
Pushing up off of his unwilling ride, Reiko sprung up onto the intact portion of the stairs and hit it running, just as the demon crashed face-first into the rubble behind. Another enemy lay ahead of him, and as it fired its sand blast, Reiko pole-vaulted over the scathing cloud. Sailing over it, he used its back as a springboard to kick off of and leap ahead. He hit the ground with legs pumping, heart pounding, and the clock ticking…
----
The lighting portal dissipated slowly to reveal a cheerily smiling Arson. He was happy because he had been upgraded from the water portal, which he'd taken the last two times already, and it had given him the chills.
Looking around himself, his good mood took a bit of a knock as he found himself in a barren and morbid place that wasn't familiar, but in his mind was swiftly starting to resemble an arena. All it seemed to be lacking was an audience, some fighters and Arson hoped, someone selling hot dogs.
As if reading his mind, one of these requirements were fulfilled, although to the teenager's disappointment it was not a hot dog vender. "Not even popcorn I bet" he muttered bitterly as three grotesque mutant spiders descended from above, surrounding him. Drawing his swords, Phoenix and Dragon ignited into flames, and the secretly attentive hybrid noticed a flicker of fear in the demons' eyes. Don't like fire eh, he thought with a slowly spreading grin as he spun the blades, fanning flames.
The spiders shrieked in fury, and he couldn't help but think such an annoying noise would work great on an alarm clock. Their murderous instincts didn't take long to overcome the fear of burning and they were soon circling and leaping closer to him. Arson kept his guard up, and when the first one lashed out he ducked the swing and retaliated, slashing and burning its already ugly face.
Suddenly his assault was halted as the creature parried his swords, chitinous scythe-like limbs clashing with hard flaming metal in a shower of sparks. Arson stumbled back, surprised by the cunning move. He heard a whistling sort of rushing sound to the side, and without looking leapt up, serrated biological blades zipping through the place he had been standing a second ago as a second demon lunged. He was still rising, when a big sticky white mess slammed into him, panicking the hybrid who thought he'd stumbled into a macro-fic. Following the trailing muck back to its source, he was semi-relieved to find it was only the webbing of one of the spiders. Feeling it pulling him in, he focused and a surge of flames burst around him, incinerating the webbing and freeing him. Dropping back to the ground Arson wiped his forehead, panting "Tough guys"…
----
Zone shivered as he experienced a sudden and unexpected change from warmth to coldness. This happened because the warm, billowing fire portal had left him on a moving sort of cart, whizzing along its track. This in turn left the rodent, who had been enjoying the heat in his fur, suddenly with a very chilly wind blowing through it in its place. He hugged himself reflexively.
"Brrr, st-stupid tr, train… Thing" he chattered, not sure quite what to call the vaguely cart-like platform he was standing on. He reckoned it was about ten metres long and four wide, and it had a sort of, post thing in each corner, but otherwise it was unguarded. Wandering cautiously to the edge, Zone let out a long whistle.
The cart was on the outside of two tracks that seemed to circle at least part of the outside circumference of the tower. Looking up gave a view of a sheer, rising surface of immense proportions and gradual curvature, the kind that would make any observer feel small, let alone a hamster. Below was simply a long way down.
Zone's ears twitched as he heard a rattling sound, and turning his head he saw another cart approaching on the inside track. Edging away from the well, edge, he drew his weapons from the eternally mysterious place he kept them, readying himself. He was tired physically and mentally, but he could still move, and still see, so he was jaw-clenchingly determined to keep, going.
As the train got closer, Zone made out two occupants, one regular Hell Pride, and, something else roughly humanoid carrying a big, strange-looking ball, easily a metre across. Shrugging off his curiosity, he aimed, and just to see what would happen, squeezed off a low-power, experimental shot at the big, pulsing sphere.
The moment he did so, the ball erupted into a huge explosion that bloomed over the train. Zone closed one eye and braced against the shockwave, but he still saw the Hell Pride get sent flying off the side of the cart.
When the blast cleared, nothing was left but an empty, badly scorched train. "Awesome!!" Zone whooped excitedly, so enamoured by the massive explosion he almost didn't notice the second cart coming. "Haha, like a bomb buffet" he laughed as he took aim and fired, relishing in the subsequent detonation, finding the job of fireworks manager thoroughly reinvigorating…
----
Reiko came stumbling out of the light again, and this time didn't resist as his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees panting. Slumping back a little, he raised his hand and opened it, relieved to see the Fragment appear, and then let his arm drop and sat catching his breath.
He was still like this when Zone returned next, the hamster featuring a thoroughly entertained grin. "Man, you look beat" he remarked as he walked over to Reiko.
A weary nod, "It was a very demanding time limit" he replied, "I notice you appear to be rather energized".
"Hehe, I got to blow things up, it was enjoyable, and therapeutic" Zone answered with an animated gesture.
"How fortunate, for you" Reiko breathed out, slightly envious that while he ran himself ragged, Zone got to enjoy himself. The rodent gave an innocuous shrug and coy grin, as if to say he couldn't help his good luck.
At this point the lightning portal crackled, and they looked to see it discharge Arson. The hybrid staggered out of it, managed a few steps, muttered something about "catching the number of that Vanguard", and then toppled over onto the ground, groaned, and fell silent.
Zone looked from Arson to Reiko, to find that Reiko had stopped looking at the hybrid to look at him. They exchanged looks, and compared. "Looks like these missions are getting harder" Reiko surmised eventually.
"Looks likely" answered Zone, who was recounting his good fortunes at how well suited to him his mission had been, pausing briefly to prepare some synonyms for the word look.
While the rodent worked on diversifying the story's descriptive vocabulary, which he seemed to be doing with proficient alacrity, Reiko got to grips with the task of standing up. It was a difficult business as he was still slightly dizzy from his mad dash, not to mention his muscles felt a sort of airy burning whenever they moved. With an effort of focus and will, he made it to his feet, and went over to Arson to help do likewise.
"Are you alright Arson?" he asked as he reached the floored teenager, bending over and offering a hand up.
"Smrphfyn" game the garbled response, Arson's face still against the floor. His hand fumbled round blindly and eventually found Reiko's, and with a unified effort, he made it first to his knees, then finally to his feet.
"I'll take your… Noise for it" Reiko replied, hesitant to call the lottery of consonants a word. Looking over Arson, he didn't seem to be exactly injured, rather extremely roughed up. His clothes were a mess, and his hair looked like it was undergoing a schism, but the vampire found no ripped clothing or bloodied wounds.
All in all it appeared Arson had been dragged down a back alley and gangbanged by two unruly hurricanes.
"Well, I'm ready, you guys good to go?" Zone asked wandering over, satisfied with the quality of the lexis.
"I'm, ready enough" Reiko answered, having recovered most of his breath and balance. "Arson?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah, I'm OK" he answered, nodding, and then pausing to repair the disarray it inflicted upon his hair.
Reiko again hesitated; his friend looked worse for wear, though they all did, but Arson especially so. But, if he said he was OK Reiko trusted him, he knew his limits better than the vampire, "Very well, lets proceed".
"Hey, we're almost there" Zone chipped in optimistically, opening his paw, his Fragment appearing over it.
"That's true" Reiko agreed, raising his own hand too. Arson put the blade of Dragon in his mouth to free up a palm, and raised it. The repetitive special effects followed, which everyone skips after seeing a few times.
"Thank God for the start button" Arson remarked, as they gathered around the newly formed energy portal. They were about to enter, when something happened.
With a deafening shattering sound, the pillar of light exploded, the trio covering their eyes and backing off rapidly. When the glare and noise had subsided, they looked to find in place of the gateway stood a person.
Or at least, with generous vagueness you could call it a person. Covered in either deep black, or bold red, it resembled a human in shape, but clearly wasn't. Rather it closer matched the appearance of something that is designed to look like a human, such as a toy. It's clothes had a hard to describe simplicity to them, and it had a face that, while obviously its real face, resembled a mask. In fact, it was surprisingly similar to Jester.
Most alarming of all though, was the fact that it was standing there at all, in the middle of the platform from which they operated. It was shocking. It was unprecedented. It was like being attacked in the options menu.
"This is a bit sooner than I expected" Arson muttered.
Upon hearing this, the as yet unnamed newcomer, who had been happily posing in the wake of its entrance, turned and looked at him. "You were, expecting me?" it said with a male voice, again not unlike to Jester's.
"The Blind Seer mentioned a third enemy" Reiko answered, seizing the chance to analyse their new enemy.
The creature's head snapped round to stare at Reiko now, and his previously joyful eyes smouldered with inconceivable rage. "I HATE BEING EXPECTED!" he screamed furiously, the air around him shimmering from heat. Then as soon as it had come, the anger left, the creature sighing casually. "I never liked the bitch anyway" it remarked offhandedly, as if commenting on the weather.
"Hold on a second. If you lot aren't restricted to your own areas, why don't you team up on us all at once?" Zone demanded. The mini tyrant was vehemently against the stereotype that bad guys followed dumb rules.
"You mean cooperate? With them?" the creature responded with an expression that suggested he had asked it to copulate with a radish. "Don't insult me, you've met them, haven't you? They are boring" it answered.
Reiko could tell Zone was about to retort abusively, so he cut in to draw out the banter, giving more time to size up their enemy. "It might help if we knew your name" he suggested.
"My name? The Wild Card, and I'm the force of chaos and continuity errors and all that yada yada, this is boring, lets fight" The Wild Card responded impulsively.
The trio glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, except in the case of Zone, as he didn't have any. "At least he gets to the point" Arson pointed out with a shrug.
"Well done that lad, lets give him a big hand!" The Wild Card said, clapping emphatically. With a sudden movement he threw several small objects towards Arson. As they rushed towards him they turned out to be playing cards, which became extremely apparent when they spontaneously enlarged to be two metres high.
"But, I'm not supposed to gamble!" Arson complained as he hastily moved out of the path of one giant card only to be clipped by a second, and then smacked head-on by a third. The hybrid was pushed back towards the edge by the biggest seven of hearts in history, scrambling for enough purchase to stop his forced retreat.
With a growl of determination, Dragon whipped round and slashed into the card's middle. Burning through the plastic-like material, the sword severed it clean apart, the two halves exploding into flaming ashes that whipped past Arson's hair. With a flurry of furious swings he hacked his way through the rest of the storm.
Despite this development, the Wild Card seemed more pleased than ever. "For a kid who doesn't gamble you dealt with that pretty well" he laughed deliriously, stopping when a staff cracked his head to the side.
On the other end of the staff stood Reiko, who had analysed their enemy and made his move. He was going to try and help Arson, but he realised he wouldn't reach him in time, and then when the teenager had saved himself, it had left him free to sneak up on the distracted clown. Their last two opponents had had a distinct weakness; the Puppet Master was physically frail and without control, powerless. The Blind Seer had been equally lacking in brute strength, so Reiko reasoned chances were this Wild Card was similarly vulnerable.
The Wild Card's head lolled to the side sickeningly from the force of the blow, its body starting to collapse in the same direction. Then with startling suddenness, it halted in its descent and the creature's head twisted round to stare Reiko in the eyes, who was standing directly behind him. "So you wanna play rough eh?" the Wild Card asked rhetorically, and his body suddenly jerked to life.
Bringing his arms around, a whirlwind of club suit cards coalesced in his hands, and before Reiko could so much as raise his staff to defend, it smashed into his chest. "Strike three, you're out!" the Wild Card yelled, as Reiko was smacked careering back through the air. With a brutal impact he crashed back-first into one of the four talon-like pillars around the edge of the platform, hitting it near the top, which fractured and drifted apart. As the pieces floated into the void, Reiko tumbled down the roughly curved pillar back onto the dais.
"Alright, that did not go as planned" the vampire admitted as he landed on all fours, shakily rising again after several moments. He noted that this enemy was evidently more physically resilient than the others.
"So this one can fight back" Arson noted, him and Zone standing shoulder to ankle, their weapons raised.
"True, but I bet we can wear him down" the rodent replied confidently. "He can take being bashed, maybe cutting works better" he suggested with a twirl of his lightsabre. Arson nodded and they charged together.
"New playmates, excellent!" the Wild Card yelled joyfully, and raising his arms he inexplicably called into being two garden shovels. Arson leapt forwards, Phoenix clashing with the head of a spade as Zone made a slash for the creature's leg that it evaded, turning and lashing out with its other abnormal weapon at Arson.
The hybrid parried, and he and the hamster duelled frantically with the shovel-wielding maniac. Reiko ran over to assist them as soon as he could stand properly. Not wanting to be ganged up on by all three of them, the Wild Card swung with sudden fury, having been laughing deliriously the entire time up until that point.
Arson was heaved backwards and Zone sent flying with a thwack in the front he was able to brace against with his weapon, but it still left him dazed on his back a dozen feet away.
Turning to Reiko, the Wild Card launched one spade like a javelin, the vampire batting it to the side with his staff and commando rolling to avoid the second, which was flying straight at his face. His hands now free, the Wild Card pointed his palms at Reiko as he rolled to his feet again, only a few paces from the creature. Before he could take another step though, a swarm of glowing specks of energy flew out of the Wild Card's hands at him. Reiko spun his staff like a helicopter blade to deflect them, but was still forced back by the sheer press of them, rapidly driven towards the edge until eventually he leapt out of their path, several of them scoring lacerations across his exposed side.
"Hey, leave Reiko alone!" Arson yelled, leaping at the distracted fighter. Thrusting forwards, both of his blades parted the air with a hiss, and sunk straight into the creature's torso, except it wasn't there anymore. Phoenix and Dragon sliced through flimsy card, Arson stumbling forwards from the unexpected lack of any resistance. A laugh emanated behind him, and he spun round just in time to get a body full of energy stars.
"Haha, this is fun! I was worried I'd have no one to play with when I got the short straw and had to go last. I'm glad to killed the other two, I'd be bored out of my skull right now if you hadn't" the lunatic laughed as Arson cried out in pain, the bursts of light cutting at him and throwing him backwards with raw force. "Oh and can't forget the pest problem" he added as the hybrid landed, turning to Zone, who had only managed to stand a couple of moments ago, his head ringing. Turning his open hands on the dizzy hamster, he fired.
For Zone, there was a sudden and painful awareness, replacing his hazy-mindedness in an instant. He saw Arson down, Reiko standing but obviously worse for wear, and last of all the rapidly approaching swarm of lethal little stars closing in on him, all as if in slow motion. With equal clarity he knew that the energy bolts would rip him to shreds if they hit, and that he could dodge some, but not that many. The lights reflected in his dark rodent eyes as his paws fumbled with his laser gun, some instinct to survive controlling his limbs.
The galaxy of pain rushed towards the hamster, and then when they were only a couple of feet away from him, seemed to shift almost unnoticeably in their trajectory.
The storm of energy hit, and the rodent vanished in a blast of light. The Wild Card cackled maniacally, and turned to deal with the others. As he did a crimson beam of energy ripped out of the white glow, dissipating it and revealing Zone, completely intact, a maelstrom of energy points whipping around him making his fur billow, before pouring into the charging port of his laser even as it channelled the energy back to its owner.
It was the Wild Card's turn for a slow-motion experience, as he turned he head bemusedly. "Huh?" he said, and in the next instant the thick beam of power ripped through his side leaving a foot wide hole in his body.
"House loses" Zone remarked as he lowered his weapon, which was thankfully still full, having fed off his enemy's own attack. Arson had also picked himself up.
With a scream of agony, the Wild Card staggered around clutching the space where a significant portion of itself once was. Suddenly, several cracks in the air itself shot out between its fingers, and as Reiko, Arson and Zone watched on aghast, these fractures zigzagged across the platform. With a disturbing shudder, the whole construct of stone jolted, shook, and split apart into several large chunks that started tumbling apart.
"This is not an improvement!" Reiko yelled to the hamster, the vampire struggling to balance on his piece.
"How was I supposed to know this would happen!" Zone defended indignantly, keeping stable on all fours.
"Uh, guys, I think it's getting worse" Arson waved to the other two, pointing with his other hand upwards.
Zone and Reiko looked up, and saw the Wild Card now floating over the dismantled platform. He was still writhing, but had started to laugh, alternating harshly between tones of amusement and rage. Suddenly his body convulsed, and from the huge gap in his side appeared another arm, this one thickly-muscled, bestial even in appearance, a matching limb ripping from his other side. "Now the stakes are up!" he cried at them.
"I refuse to take the blame for this" Zone cut in before anyone else could say anything. Reiko threw him an annoyed look, but quelled his irritation, telling himself that in all fairness, he couldn't have known that this would result from successfully attacking their enemy.
The platform had fractured into several pieces, which were drifting randomly but seemed not to wander too far apart. There were four major chunks roughly equal in size, with at least twice as many smaller, car-sized pieces orbiting them and countless bits of tiny debris.
"It seems foolish to keep attacking him, but we don't really have any other choice. Perhaps he does wear down over time" Reiko said, turning and judging a jump onto the unoccupied section. Running and leaping up to a smaller floating chunk, he kicked off it and propelled himself towards the Wild Card from behind. His enemy seemed like he wouldn't react in time, as the vampire rapidly ascended towards him with staff held ready to strike, when, he, was, suddenly, caught, in, a, storm, of, inappropriately, placed, punctuation.
Slowing him down immensely before he suddenly crossed a random paragraph break. Bewildered and quite disorientated, Reiko looked around for his target. A hand tapped him on the shoulder, and the vampire gave a resigned sigh, not humouring the cliché moment and turning round, getting smashed from behind instead.
As Reiko hit Arson's platform hard, the hybrid looked at him with worry and confusion. "What happened up there?" he asked, having seen, but not understood.
"I don't know…" Reiko replied as he struggled to his feet, "It was as if twisted the fabric of reality itself".
Zone meanwhile was trying to snipe their opponent with his laser, but he kept evading. Suddenly a series of big bullet holes looking like they'd been shot in glass appeared around the rodent, who yelped and dodged with alarm. A moment later and the ground under him shattered and the devil hunter rank screen appeared in front of him. Zone stared at it in bewilderment, and then suddenly cursed, "An A for style? Screw you!".
While the hamster was trying to find his way out of the end of level screen, Arson took his chance and leapt up at the occupied Wild Card. He got about halfway before the Devil May Cry 3 logo appeared out of thin air and obstructed him. "What. the heck?" Arson scratched his head, confused, but tried to break it anyway.
"No, Stinger it" Reiko advised, seeing the hybrid wasn't meeting with any luck. Arson complied, and thrust his swords right into the logo, which promptly broke. He continued to move upwards, disorientating as that is, and flew at the Wild Card, engaging him in combat. The two traded blows, but while Arson was skilled, he only had half as many arms as his opponent and was repetitively hit with traumatisingly random objects.
Zone meanwhile had managed to load himself back from the main menu, and reappeared in a kitchen sink, which was running, as it smacked Arson over the head. Spluttering and leaping up onto the tap, he jumped at the face of the Wild Card, who jerked to the side, but the rodent still succeeded in cutting across its head.
"Zone?" Arson muttered in surprise, deflecting an umbrella as he stared at the familiar rodent. As he did so, the wound the hamster had dealt convulsed, and a horn tore out of it, a second appearing to mirror the first.
"This is not going well" Reiko thought out loud as he looked up at Arson, Zone landing near him as he did.
"Oh come on, I get him in the head and he gets stronger?!" Zone complained as he stood up and looked up in time to see Arson get sent crashing down with a brutal headbutt. The hybrid was knocked back, and then punched down to slam into the platform next to his friends' a moment later. Reiko looked at him worriedly, but the hybrid wasn't out of it yet, and stood up shakily, although he was bleeding badly from the forehead.
Reiko looked back to their opponent. "The more we fight and damage him, the more dangerous he becomes to battle" he remarked, the Wild Card looking only half like a clown and half like a demon now. Similarly, their surroundings were becoming more and more hazardous, the fragments colliding with each other and sending more debris floating. The longer they battled, the more things became a Hell of danger and chaos.
"Any ideas?" Arson asked as he leapt over to the others.
"Perhaps, if we don't attack him, his power will regress. It's worth a try" Reiko suggested. Zone opened his mouth to object, but bit his tongue, since he couldn't come up with anything better. Cautiously they waited.
"Aww, not going to play with me anymore?" the Wild Card asked with a pout, a child-like disappointment in his voice. He got no reply verbal or otherwise, and suddenly his face contorted into an expression of fury and he roared "Then, you all die!", his voice deep and bellowing. With another war cry he charged at them.
"I hope this works!" Zone shouted as the semi-demon crashed into the platform, making it tremble from the impact. Stumbling but staying upright, they attacked him together, fighting in a synchronised assault. Reiko took the lead with a rapid series of staff stabs, the Wild Card managing to catch it in his hands, but when he did, Zone ran along it and lashed out at his arms, making him release it and letting Reiko push him towards Arson, who slashed up his back with both blades. The Wild Card stumbled, but his cry of pain changed to one of anger as two jagged wings ripped out of the wounds, forcing Arson to back off as they opened wide.
The battled continued like this, the combined skill of Arson, Reiko and Zone enough to land blows on their enemy, but each hit dealt seemed only to strengthen him. Furthermore, the Wild Card's own attacks were taking their toll, and the platform upon which they stood was fragmented into smaller pieces by one slam of all four of its arms. This made it harder for them to fight together, and the battle was wearing them down.
"Ugh!" Reiko choked as a giant fist seized his throat, squeezing hard. The vampire thrashed and kicked, but he had evaded, blocked and endured so many attacks already, his strength was waning. Even as he kicked the deformed creature before him in the head, it barely flinched.
"Do you need an instruction manual on how to die?!" Zone exclaimed as he drove his lightsabre into the back of the monster's neck, having caught hold of one of its wings and climbed onto his back. Running over his shoulder, the rodent cut a four-inch deep wound around half the creature's neck and jumped clear.
Reiko crumpled to the ground as he was released, Zone landing besides him a moment later. Behind him, the monster, which seemed to have lost or stopped using his capacity for speech, roared and clawed at his throat. He seemed in pain, but after a few moments a ring of bony spikes thrust out his neck, and he was even more dangerous than before. He advanced on them, but Arson leapt onto his back and distracted him.
"Unbelievable, absolute madness" Reiko gasped, watching as the beast wrestled with the hybrid. There was just no way of weakening the creature; their attacks just seemed to fuel it and if they left it, it attacked them anyway. What they were fighting now bore hardly any vestiges of resemblance to the clown they had first known, it looked more like a fully-fledged demon lord.
As Reiko got up and Zone willed his body to keep going, the Wild Card managed to get his hands on Arson and slammed him into the stone chunk, fracturing it. Their half drifted away as the hybrid was punched in the gut repeatedly, cracks spreading over the ground around him.
With a lunge, Reiko tackled the brute off of him, the two of them tumbling onto another part. The vampire was on top, but at the last moment the Wild Card twisted and shoved him against the ground. He raised his head to smash it into Reiko's, but a red blast snapped it to the side, making him look the way it came from.
"Why, don't, you…" Zone panted then trailed off, realising there was no one the monster's own size about. "Just die!" he finished lamely but with conviction., taking another shot. His target leapt back and dodged it, pushing off of a drifting chunk and landing on Zone's. A fist came hurtling down, and the rodent only just manages to leap clear as it shattered the ground he had been standing on. A second one shot down and he rolled to the side, thrown up by the near-miss. A third hand snatched him from the air, and there was a brief moment of tension before the squeezing the rodent knew would come, came, and lasted all of half a second.
The Wild Card squeezed, and Zone's body shrunk in his fist. With a sickening crunch, a blur impacted with the giant's wrist, the hand holding the hamster, making it spasm and release him. The staff reversed into the chin of its target as Reiko reached out and caught the falling hamster, terrified he'd been too late, "Zone?!".
Zone didn't stir for a moment, and then another moment. Then he coughed and opened his eyes, "Shit, that, aches like you would not believe" he choked out weakly. Seeing the expression of amazement and relief on Reiko's face, he managed a weak grin, patting his sides, "Collapsible ribcage; being a hamster has its uses".
"So it does" Reiko answered quietly. Then he saw the look that crossed Zone's face, and he went to turn, but was too late as four massive arms closed around him, pinning his own to his chest, Zone in his hand.
Arson's head lifted as he heard a faint noise. He could hardly see straight, but the noise persisted and as he focused, he recognised it. It was Reiko; he was in pain.
"R, Reiko?" the hybrid muttered weakly as he managed to lift his head. Several metres away, the monster that their enemy had become was standing on a platform, the vampire trapped in a bear hug facing away from him. Even as slow horror crept through his mind, the teenager could see his friend straining against the crushing force, and suddenly he noticed a movement in his hands against his chest. It was Zone, Arson realised, the hamster trapped against Reiko's chest by the vice grip, the vampire using his arms to shield the vulnerable rodent from the pressure, but he was slowly losing strength and it was leaking through, Zone at first gritting his teeth, and then yelling as he felt himself compressed.
"N, n-no…" Arson whispered in despair as he saw his friends suffer. "S… Stop…" he choked out, trying to rise, but his body just wouldn't respond. He grit his teeth, blood dripping from his lip, and heaved, his torso slowly rising up, and then giving out. "No, stop h, hurting, them" it was a whimper, a demand and a prayer, and he willed himself to rise, his limbs responding agonisingly slowly as he listened to his friends' torment.
Gradually, he managed to roll onto his front, then rise onto all fours, and then turn around. As he looked at the scene before him again, Reiko's head shot up and his back bent in painfully. "Reiko!" Arson cried out, and he pushed on his feet too stand. But it was too much, too rushed, and he only got halfway up before his legs gave out, and he fell face-first to the ground. Out of sight, his friends' cries of suffering rose an octave.
"Stop hurting my friends!" the scream echoed through the void, and it took several seconds for Arson to realise it was his voice, a sudden surge of energy fuelling his voice. Feeling something well up inside him, the hybrid twitched, then convulsed where he lay. With a ripping sound, two bulges expanded under his coat, straining and finally tearing free of the fabric, and in a flourish of feathers, two angelic wings spread.
"Enough" the single word left his lips, and with one mighty beat, the wings lifted Arson up and held him in the air. His body hung limp as though crucified by his own new appendages. Slowly, clenching his jaw, the hybrid forced his arms to rise, and pointed them at the monster hurting his friends. With a cry, white beams of pure light erupted from around his limbs and shot towards the beast, wrapping round each its appendage.
"What is this?" a guttural voice emanated from the creature as it was bound, the first time it had spoken in a while. Turning its head, it saw the one it had beaten all but to death, but yet somehow different from before.
"This is your penance" Arson answered, his voice sounding different, as if it came from beyond his own body. With a sudden wrench, the creature was pulled towards the hybrid by the coils of light, Reiko and with him Zone dropped by the sudden jerk, landing on the platform. Snarling the beast turned on its new victim, but found itself unable to move. Fighting against its restraints, the bonds cut into it, and it laughed as new and wicked mutations burst from the wounds. However the more it twisted and thrashed, the more the holy energy surrounded it, until it was completely encased in an orb of pure light, a perfect white globe.
"Know your own wrath" Arson intoned. As he concentrated on holding the sphere together, the monster's thrashings became increasingly wild. Slowly, trapped with its own chaos, it tore itself to pieces, until in the end nothing remained but a clear orb. With a sigh, Arson lowered his arms, and the sphere faded to nothing. "It is done" he breathed, his wings vanishing as he did. Then he collapsed onto the platform, unconscious…