Hey, this is definitely not the last chapter. Yes, I may or may not borrow some of Nathan's admonitions from the episode "religionklok".
Just review, this chapter is gonna be totally metal.
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The elevator took forever to go down and when it finally stopped, they were in the middle of a brightly lit hallway. No twists, no turns, just... hallway.
"Wow... this is wierd," said Nathan, following the others down the hall. There were tons of doors, how the fuck were they supposed to find the right one?
"Wait. Listen, guys," said Flame, and she turned to face them all.
"You should find a room and wait there for me. It's not worth having you guys get killed. That's my job, right? Save your asses? So I'm going to do it," she explained.
"Hey, no way, I feel like fighting," said Nathan, clenching his fists. He really felt like punching somebody's face in. Not sure why, he just did.
"Yeas, whats if sometings happened to yous?" saif Toki defiantly.
"I think what Toki's trying to says is dis. We cares abouts you nows, and we's goings to fights too," said Skwisgaar.
"Hey, I think care is a little strong," objected Murderface. Nathan rolled his eyes. He knew Murderface well enough. He acted tough but inside he was really a sensitive guy. Attention craving.
Wait a minute... that described Flame in every way. Was she sorta like Murderface? Was that why she hated telling them anything about herself?
"We're coming," Nathan said, finalizing the matter.
"Yeah, I brought my driving gun," said Murderface, holding it up. It had been in his pocket.
"And I still got the shotgun," said Pickles.
"Hey, thats mine!"
"Alright, fine. If any of you get hurt, it wasn't cause I wasn't there to help," said Flame, somewhat sadly.
They kept walking and they all crashed into one another when she stopped again. There was another elevator, this one silver.
"Hey, Flame. About those autographs your friend asked for. I'll, uh... do it later, if we get outta this," said Nathan on inspiration. They were knowingly going into possible danger. They might not ever come back. It just felt like the right thing to do.
They boarded the elevator, which was tiny. Toki had to practically sit in his lap so they could all fit.
The doors opened and there, looking stunned to see them, sat seven men. The Tribunal.
An overwhelming hatred suddenly boiled up inside of him, a hate so black and brutal that he growled and immediately charged into the room, coldclocking the man standing in front of a bank of tv screens. He went down.
"It's Dethklok, everyone, send reinforcements! Now!" yelled the general from before.
"They have come to seek revenge! Lord help us," said what looked like a pope.
There was a shinging sound as Flame pulled her sword from its sheath and began slicing and dicing away.
"Yaaaieyaaaaioooeeyaaaiiii!!" yelled Toki, and he began wailing on the general.
Nathan was punching every inch of the big guy in the middle of the room he could get his fists on, a big old guy with long white hair.
"Sleep," he said and for some reason he felt himself get sleepy.
He closed his eyes and blacked out.
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Flame dove and dodged punches, slicing every Tribunal she laid eyes on, getting punched in the process, fueling her rage. Beside her, she saw Nathan Explosion collapse on top of a big guy with white hair who looked strangely calm.
"Nathan!!!" she cried, afraid he was dead.
"Nat'ans?" said Toki, looking around. He was distracted and received a vicious slap from whoever he was beating on. He staggered and fell to the floor.
It wasn't supposed to have happened like this. Even now, she could hear reinforecements stomping towards them, all armed with guns.
"EVERYONE HIDE! THEY HAVE GUNS!" she screamed to be heard. Immediately, Pickles reloaded Murderface's sawed off shotgun and Murderface steadied his driving gun at the elevator.
The troops stormed in, armed not only with guns but with knives. They were all in danger now. Protecting these men was her job, how could she have let them talk her into leading them to possible death?
Pickles opened fire on as many soldiers as he saw and Murderface not only shot as many as he could, but punched them at the same time as well.
She was so busy watching the band that someone stabbed her in the side of the ribs with a knofe.
"Ah!" she shrieked.
"FLAME!!" yelled Toki, who was being backed into a corner by a man with a gun. He was defenseless, like a lamb to slaughter. This whole mess was her fault. Nathan, probably dead. Toki, as good as.
"No," she said determinidely. If this was the way it was going to end, she would go out fighting.
She screamed, taking her captors by surprise, and despite the wound in her side began fighting even more ferociously, slicing throats and severing arms, guns or no guns. Someone else got under her sword and delivered a vicious kick to the same spot she had been stabbed and she heard something snap, but she hardly felt anything. Protect the band. Or what was left of it.
She had grown to like these guys the past week she had known them. The thought of leaving them for dead never even crossed her mind. She would avenge them.
"Surrender now, or be killed, that's an order!" one of the soldiers demanded and Skwisgaar pummeled the man with his guitar, ruiining it on contact, shattering the man's faceplate, driving shards of glass up his nose and into his eye sockets. He dropped.
"Skwisgaar, take Muderface and Pickles and run!" she yelled over her shoulder. Now she and the blonde Swede were fighting back to back.
"Nevers! Dey slapped at my face and no ones slaps Skwisgaar Skwigelf!" he refused.
"Is Nathan okay?" she asked, taking a man's arm off.
"I dink he is asleeps," said Skwisgaar.
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone stopped fighting momentarily to see who had yelled. It was the older gentleman who had killed Nathan. He was still calm.
"There will be no more death here today. You may retrieve your band members and leave this place or you may continue to struggle and be killed. That is my offer," he said.
"Not much of an offer, to bes honest," said Toki, now with a gun to his forehead. He was frozen stiff and looked terrified.
"He's right. You guys have been hounding Dethklok because of a supposition that may or may not even be true," snarled Flame.
The man said nothing. He raised one hand and began to say something, but Flame jumped foreward and sliced his hand off. Whatever he was, however he fought, it was with his hands and his mind. She didn't know how she knew. She just did.
"Gaaaaah!" he groaned, his eyes widening.
"She cut the Boss! Let's get outta here!" said one soldier.
They all crowded onto the elevator, what was left of them, and scampered. Now it was just a room full of dead, and the band. And the man at the front of the room. One of the tv banks had been shattered, leaving the rest dead. The tvs behind the long desk to the side of the room were blank, showing nothing but muddy backdrops. The people watching via TV had scampered.
"My offer still stands," said the man, wrapping his bleeding stump in the folds of his pressed shirt.
"You killed Nathan. It's my job. You have to die,' growled Flame. She wasn't usually one to be overly dramatic but she felt horrible, a terrible aching in her heart that this massacre was her fault. She had led them here. She was all but fired. Screw fired, she would be arrested.
"Your friend Nathan is not a major loss," said the man.
To her immense surprise, she found her eyes leaking tears. Her contacts began bothering her and she was forced to remove them, tossing thems aside, not caring. Her eyes were a pure silver-blue, like crystal pools or a spring sky. Not ugly, but common. About the same shade as Toki's.
She was crying. For the first time in years she was crying. Did she care that much for these men? They had been her salvation from a life on the streets. She had been penniless until that day in Sweden. They had taken her in, saving her. Had given her a life.
She tackled the man, not caring about her broken rib, not caring that she was no match for this mysterious man. He shoved at her head with his hands, creaking her neck and she bit him, sinking her teeth as far in as they would go, drawing streams of blood that tasted like poison. This man, whatever or whoever he was, was hardly normal.
"You have chosen to die, then," said the man very close to her ear. He had one of his hands on her sword hand and she was trying to reach for the dagger tucked into her pants but it was on the wrong side of her body.
She felt herself getting drowsy and fought it, pushing against the man. She finally got hold of her dagger and plunged it into the man's shoulder. He screamed and a freshet of blood covered her, gagging her, blinding her. She fell back and blacked out, giving in to the darkness.
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"Flame!"
Toki Wartooth, good natured and light hearted yet sometimes violent like the rest of them, rushed to the girl's side. Skwisgaar aimed his jagged guitar neck at the man who had knocked her out, but the man escaped.
"Fuck!" Skwisgaar yelled.
"Come ons, Flame, wakes up!" cried Toki, shakikng her gently.
"Toki, it's... too late. She's gone," said Murderface gently, putting a hand on the guitarist's shoulder.
"Ughh... oooh... what happened? Where is everyone? Where am I," said Nathan.
"NATHANS!" called Skwisgaar, running forwards and flinging his arms around the massive lead singer.
"Yeah, yeah, get offa me," said Nathan, somewhat flattered that his band cared as much for him as he did for them. Then he spotted Flame and all the dead bodies and all the blood. Skwisgaar's broken guitar. The blood on Toki's shirt from what looked like a broken cheek bone.
"Flame! Wakes up, wakes up, don't dies!" cried Toki, now starting to lose his line of vision as his eyes were clouded by tears. She was his friend, why'd she have to die like this?
She opened her eyes slightly, her usual frown gone. Now her expression looked... sad... pleading. Her eyes were just like his, the palest blue.
"Help me," she whimpered. She was covered in blood, not all of it her own and the side of her t shirt was soaked black with it. She was hurt!!
"Is she alright?" asked Nathan. It was his fault this had happened, if he hadn't hired her the stupid Tribunal would never have hurt any of them. The files said they had been trying for years and they were all still there. If she died, he wasn't sure... She wasn't so bad for a fan and a girl, and he had to admit, he had started to even like her.
She was lying on her side, one arm draped limp against one hip. It was the same side that was soaked in black blood.
He gently reached down and lifted the hem of his t shirt up and revealed a nicely curved hip, pale, smooth skin and then the side of her ribcage... oh, god...
"Oh, god, look at her ribs! She's got a broken rib! Oh, god this is all my fault!" he cried, dropping the shirt and sitting back on his ass. He should never have hired her, this was all his fault!
"Nathan-?"
He stopped sulking at the sound of her voice. He looked down at her as she tied to sit up and failed. Her eyes were the same shade as Toki's, a pure blue and she looked sad for some reason. Like she was gonna die or something. She couldn't die. Not after what she had done for all of them. This was his fault. He owed her.
He scooped one hand below her butt and another under her back and lifted her up.
"Let's get out of here," he growled. He fought back tears of frustration and remorse as they all climbed back onto the elevator.
"Come ons, Flame, don't dies on us," said Toki, gently mving her black hair out of her face and smoothing it out.
"Yeas, whats he saids, don't dies on us, cause that would really sucks," said Skwisgaar, although he abstained from touching her.
"Yeah, what they both said, kid, don't ... you know die or nuthin," said Murderface.
Pickles, who had said nothing the entire time, merely stoof with his arms crossed in the corner of the elevator, staring at her bloodied face and saying nothing. He was holding her sword. Even the handle was covered in blood.
She seemed to weigh nothing as he walked out of the elevator with her in his arms, he thought. He was careful to keep her arms cradled in her lap and her head against his chest so he didn't mess up her broken rib.
They couldn't have gotten back to the Hatredcopter soon enough.
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Back at Mordhaus
"Hey, Charles, get down here!"
"Oh my god, what happened to you guys? Toki, your face..."
"Forgets dat, take cares of Flame!" he protested angrily.
Up in the medical unit of Mordland.
She's stable, but I don't know for how long. She may not wake up," said the doctor sadly.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
No one else said anything. Nathan's grief and guilt ridden scream had spoken volumes for all of them.
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Please review, I know it was a bit long, but I'm actually getting a sequel in mind... I expect a good long review!