Chapter Sixteen: Corner of Uncertainty
"Well it seems that he's already been here and it looks like he tore this place apart." the beige coyote said, lifting a chunk of debris out of his way.
"Guess we're back to square one. He's obviously too far for us to send a call for reinforcements." Mario added, rubbing his chin.
"Don't think that just yet. I could just use my connection to him to sense where he went." Darius stated, his eyes never glancing to his temporary allies.
Mario nodded while Carnage shook his head due to his uncertainty of the dog's abilities. The grey hound closed his eyes and pointed Shoukyoku and Sekkyoku in opposite directions. Since Damien controlled negative chaos energy, his older brother rotated himself and kept his focus on his ebony broadsword. Within a few seconds, Darius felt his brother's presence.
"He's moving east though with the feint energy I could feel, it seems we'll have to cover a significant amount of ground to even want to catch up to him." Darius declared.
"How far are we talking?" Carnage asked, dipping his fingers in Phoenix's blood and licking it for its delectable flavor.
"Estimated, at least six to seven miles covered on foot." the Angels sibling stated, sheathing his blades.
Mario began to calculate the time and distance covered in order to identify Damien's speed per hour. He smiled just slightly before looking to his teammates.
"He isn't going that fast, he's just got the upper hand with the time it took us to arrive. We can easily catch up if we move out now." the G.U.N agent explained.
"Agent Toki sir." a man said from behind the yellow hedgehog.
"Ah yes, you were with Phoenix's squadron. Status Report?" the higher agent requested.
"We had the target surrounded however two other people helped him. One of his allies was killed and the other went on a frenzy and almost severely injured Phoenix sir."
Carnage lightly pushed the younger anti-hero out of the way to talk to the agent.
"Was one of the dog's allies a female jackal?" the coyote asked.
The male agent nodded as the Blackheart Leader cracked his jaw from frustration. His green pools stayed on the agent and he placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder.
"And she got away too?"
"Yes."
As I thought.
The villain sighed before rubbing his temple, the thought of Lia getting away angering him. In his furious state, he withdrew his Desert Sun claymore and sliced the agent's head off with one foul swoop.
"A man of my genius can never get good help, can he?" Carnage muttered to himself.
"Apparently not. You sliced the man's head off with a claymore. It seemed as if you couldn't stand that Lia girl." Darius said with a small sigh.
The beige character walked over to the grey one, grabbing him by the chest fur and lifting him into the air. Forest green eyes met ruby red ones in a battle of intimidation.
"I suggest you keep your comments to yourself or I'll be drinking your blood along with the girl's." the coyote hissed at the canine.
"I don't doubt that you have the ability to do so. I just doubt that you have the guts and courage to even raise your blade against me." the dog nonchalantly replied to the threat.
The Blackheart Leader growled at Darius' attitude towards the situation he was in, raising the claymore towards the torturer's face until he could see his own reflection. His bloodstained weapon didn't faze the dog however, his eyes lazily gazing at it. Carnage ran his tongue along the sleek surface to lick the blood off.
"This blood taste so good. I wonder how your blood taste." the coyote teased.
"I'm sure you do but if you don't let go of me, you're going to learn what your blood taste like." Darius proclaimed with a bit of harshness to boot.
Sighing, the canine dropped his partner before attempting a swing for his head however Darius swiftly withdrew Sekkyoku and deflected the attack with ease.
"Now why would you do that to me? I'm pretty sure we made a deal to not attack each other. Well not a deal but a truce." Darius murmured to the beast behind him.
"In your dreams we did!"
Darius glanced back before shifting his sword which released the Desert Sun out of Carnage's grasp. As elegant as a ballerina, the canine grasped the weapon and ejected one of the chain, the item binding itself to the coyote's arm. The hound followed up by hurling the Blackheart Leader into the wall and slamming the end of his claymore into another part of the wall.
"Good move." Carnage whispered.
The older Angels sibling walked over and pressed the edge of Shoukyoku against the coyote's neck before leaning close to his face.
"Thanks but that won't save you from me using your arm as a part for a puppet or maybe I'll choke your dead body with your intestines. It's really your call." Darius responded, his words slithering like slime.
Before he could even say something or make another move, the barrel of Mario's Uzi Submachine Gun was placed directly at the back of the dog's head.
"Did you know that an Uzi can fire around six hundred rounds per minute? That's ten rounds per second and at this range, automatic death to all." Mario stated, slightly shifting his gun on Darius' temple.
"Interesting fact my ally but are you willing to shoot the only connection to finding Damien?" the older Angels sibling asked.
"Sure I am, I'm capable of finding him myself. I was only requested to bring you into the operation. I could easily kill both of you in less than a second. And I recall easily defeating you Darius." the G.U.N agent answered.
"You must be proud of that, aren't you? I was still recovering from an earlier battle. If that wasn't the case, you might not be here right now." the Angels sibling replied.
Mario could only chuckle at the irony that was presented in the statement.
"I thought you weren't like your brother Damien. You two surely love to talk about how strong and good you are at things. Cockiness surely runs in the family." the hedgehog said with a smirk.
Darius glanced over at the friend of his brother's, his hand almost wanting from the pain he wanted to inflict on the yellow character.
"Don't you ever compare me to that ignorant fool or you will die a very extreme death."
"Vostre minacce non mi faze. Non cercare di intimidire me, se si desidera il dolore. Otterremo questo fatto, solo calma e scacciare il tuo ego." the G.U.N agent said in an different language.
"You spoke Italian, impressive. You must be a linguist." Darius commented.
"Sei corretto, ma in lingua italiana e solo una delle poche lingue che conosco." the Italian speaking character stated.
"I don't know one freaking word he's saying but I don't care either, he's needs to stop and get me down from here!" Carnage exclaimed to the duo.
Darius and Mario shook their heads before prying the coyote from the wall, the beige male rubbing parts of his body due to their soreness.
"Why did you recruit him again?" the Angels sibling asked.
"Aveva le risorse e conosceva la sciacallo il meglio. Diversi da quelli che, senza motivo." the hedgehog answered.
"Well that may be true but he's really not a team player in my opinion. I'm not even sure we can actually trust him." the dog explained.
"Well I can trust you two because if either of you try to betray the group, I'll have to kill you both by orders of the president. Stupid yes but I'm not the one who makes the rules." Mario said to his partner.
The duo watched as the coyote licked the blood off the floor, walls and debris. Darius shook his head in disappointment while Mario wanted to face palm himself. All of a sudden, the older brother of Damien felt a sudden disappearance of Damien's chaos energy.
"We have to move fast, let's go." the dog said, dashing out of the destroyed lab with Carnage and Mario following him.
"What's wrong?" Carnage questioned.
"Damien's chaos energy signature has gone missing so either his powers are acting up again or someone killed him before we got to him." the dog answered.
"Questo sembra essere un problema. Si puo individuare la sua ultima posizione?" the soldier asked his ally.
"Yes, I can do that." the grey hound answered.
"Bene, farlo adesso." the Italian character said.
"I'm sorry but can you stop freaking speaking Italian and speak English?!" the beige coyote pondered from behind the two.
Mario gazed back at Carnage and blinked twice before turning back, his black pools looking straight the whole time.
"Avrei sparato quando ho avuto la possibilita." the hedgehog stated, earning a slight chuckle from Darius.
"What the hell did you say?" Carnage asked, his eyes fixed on the hedgehog.
"Sure, no problem cinnamon." Mario sarcastically said.
"Oh, as I thought. And don't call me cinnamon!" the coyote exclaimed.
"Oh Dio, perche ti tentarmi cosi?" the G.U.N agent asked, Darius shaking his head as the trio dashed off in the distance.
"Damn it! My powers are on the fritz again. Just when I thought I had them back for a good few hours." Damien complained to his partner Lia.
"Shut up, we still have to worry about Phoenix and her squad of agents. Not only that but your brother, Carnage and this friend of yours, Mario, are also on our tail." the jackal exclaimed.
It had been only hours after the defeat of Phoenix and the death of Vortex, problems and tensions were brewing between the duo of heroes just like the trio of villains.
"I don't have to shut up, I didn't ask you to come with me. I didn't ask for you to go brutally beat up some girl to get revenge. I'm not the one who goes and tries to be a hero when someone's dying." the goldenrod hound said, coal black eyes glaring at the female.
"You think just because you have powers means you can do or say anything you want. I fought her because she was attacking us." Lia screamed.
"Well we should have gotten Vortex to the hospital instead, you were just trying to be macho and selfish!" the younger Angels sibling fired back.
Lia and Damien stopped running when they saw a cliff and the city of Westopolis in the distance. The duo glared at each other before the Angel growled at the Redclaw leader.
"Would you have rather gotten hurt while escaping her or fight her until she left us alone?" Lia asked the dog.
"Left us alone?! No one's coming after you besides that damn Cinna-Bun, Carnage! I'm the target on everyone's agenda! You're not the one with the powers. I am so if you don't mind, I'm going to solve my problem while you go rant about how much you like beating people up!" the dog exclaimed in anger.
"Well I'm helping you so I'm a target too! And I only did it because…I did it because you seemed to be in trouble. I don't know what to say!" the female cried out.
Damien paid no heed to her words as he ran down the hills to reach Westopolis, one of the great industrial cities in the world. In one leap, he landed a few yards away from the entrance of the city before looking back.
"What do you want?" the canine asked.
"I want to help but you have to trust me right now." the tribe leader stated.
The dog shook his head and just motioned for her to follow him into the city. The duo saw various cars and Extreme Gears passing by them, their speed just incredibly fast. The streets of the city were huge and the buildings looked like they could break through the sky with ease.
"Hey, it's an ice cream vendor! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream." the dog cried.
Lia sweat dropped at the male's immaturity however it really didn't matter to her at all. Damien ordered two cones of vanilla ice cream, one with sprinkles and one without. He walked over and handed the one without sprinkles to Lia.
"Eat up, we might be here a while because we have no exact idea where to go next."
The duo sat down on a bench and looked at the buildings in amazement. That's when the dog saw an electronic advertisement on one of the buildings.
"It's new and absolutely one of the greatest books to be published at this era. It's a best seller, already printed and sold millions upon millions of copies. It's Waking the Demon: The Stories and Facts of Demons by Donatello the Raven. So do yourself a favor and pick up a copy NOW!"
"Was that ironic or was that God sending me a message of awesomeness? Hopefully it's the latter." the dog said with a great big smile.
The hound got up and ran to one of the viewers of the commercial.
"Hey, do you know where I can find this Donatello guy?" the dog asked.
"He's West of this city, somewhere in his serene forest house. Hey, wait a second. I know you from somewhere." the stranger said.
"Oh you must've seen my last movie, the Street of-Hey, look a squirrel!" the vermillion hound exclaimed before dashing away, leaving the person confused.
"We've got to get out of here, more preferably West!" the dog screamed, grabbing Lia, who had finished her ice cream, bridal style.
"No, I want another ice cream!" the jackal screamed, an addiction for the frozen treat obvious by her hypnotized facial expression.
The goldenrod hound cringed when he turned back to see cops chasing him down the sidewalk. Damien began to weave through people like a running back would do against the defense. The dog then came upon a street of moving cars, the vehicles zooming past him like rockets.
"Screw this, I'm not getting caught by the cops." the dog said before hopping from car to car to reach the other side.
He was almost on the other side of the street however he was slammed at the side by a truck that he hadn't seen coming. It was a surprise he couldn't even hear it coming. The duo tried to gain their balance on the moving automobile.
"This isn't exactly how I thought things were going to go. Maybe we should just stay on the truck." Lia said.
"Nah, I got an idea. And here it comes." the dog said.
The duo looked down the street and saw a man driving on a Extreme Gear Bike, a smirk plastered on Damien's face as he and Lia jumped onto it. The jackal grinned as she threw the driver off and Damien took control, changing the direction they went.
"And we're off." the hound said as they moved West to find Donatello.
To be continued…
A/N: Well this just showed how much tensions could be built between various teams like Damien and Lia along with Carnage, Mario and Darius. So the trio of villains run off to find Damien while the duo of heroes go off to find Donatello. Who will find their target first?! You'll obviously have to wait and see. Review! Thanks! Bye.
