214. Metropolitan part 9 Final
CRACK!
A lone 'manhole cover' in the middle of the forest slammed open.
My body murked out, leapt to the side, and….
PHHHHHHWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHH!
A plume of hot fire billowed out from the hole behind me.
I leapt out blindly, arms flailing.
Evening time.
A hill.
Lined with trees.
Sloping…..down….
Th-Th-Thwomp-Thwomp-Thwomp!
I tumbled and rolled down the hill. Wincing. Shivering from my metal arm up. Clutching desperately to Myrkblade.
The tunnel elevator exit vomited flames and sparks in a red glow that pierced the night. Like a suburban volcano.
I rolled down the elevated forest. I slammed against the trunks of trees, gasped, and fell over a sharp lunge.
As I fell over a steep cliff, I saw the spinning world beyond me. The spires of Metropolis stretched high and spun skyward with trailing flashes of windowlights. I was North of the City along the mountain slopes. The rest of the train car was throttling towards Gotham, and there I was spiraling dangerously towards oblivion.
I took a breath, summoned smoke into my body just right, aligned my frame with the earth, and glided down. I brushed past the tops of pine trees, beat down through branches and limbs, and plummeted into the soft, dark earth.
I pulsed murkblade just in time.
FWOOOSH!
I landed in a crater. Clumps of soil and fluttering flocks of leaves settled around me.
And….
Everything was still.
"……..," I stood on wobbling knees. Bruised all over. Still shivering.
The erupting sound of the explosive fire dwindled and softened in the background.
And with shaded, black eyes I gazed before me and saw a tree-shaded, stone-dotted field. Dark and gray stones. Headstones.
A cemetery……
I exhaled.
Cold vapors left my mouth in the November air.
Jesus Christ.
I shivered all the more.
I hugged myself with one arm while trailing Myrkblade with the other.
It's not cold.
It's……
I shuddered.
Red Aviary……
I spun around.
I looked behind me.
More headstones. Pine tree trunks. A faint blue aura from starlight above.
"……………"
Towards the City, Jordan.
Just……
Head towards the City……
I turned around.
"…….."
I took one step.
Two.
I shuffled across the graveyard.
Past headstones.
Mausoleums.
Granite crosses, angels, even a gargoyle or two.
I crept along.
Shuddering.
Feeling ice in my limbs.
Like the Alpha and Beta laboratories.
Like the carbonite-scented winds of the Radioactive Depository.
Like……
FLASH!
Lying on a rock in the center of a dark, wind-swept field.
Gasping.
My voice gone.
Blood and muscle leaking from my throat.
Shuddering.
Lying on the rock.
Gurgling.
Crying.
Crying……
Alone.
FLASH!
I stumbled.
I braced myself against an old headstone.
I panted….panted…..panted.
I looked up.
At the tree branches.
At the waving pine needles above the dead.
Not here.
Not yet.
For the Titan's sake.
For Terra's……
I winced, braved the shivering, and moved ahead.
One sluggish foot at a time.
You can kill me later.
Just……
Let me finish what I need to finish.
The contract……the mission……
The Equalizer.
My metal fingers flinched.
I grabbed my left wrist.
Wincing.
Trying to control the shivers.
I couldn't take the arm off.
Not then.
Who knows if I may have needed….?
FLASH!
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGH!" Robin screams and bellows as he burned in the flames.
A pair of eyes levitate huge and menacing behind him.
Two burning optics.
A flicker.
They zero down to one.
FLASH!
That……
B-Breath……
SLUMP!
I collapsed over a stone cross.
Panting.
Shuddering all over.
Ana……it isn't him.
It can't possibly be.
But……it tastes of him.
Smells and breathes of him.
Did we ignore him when he most needed us?
Did we abandon him when the School caved in?
When all that we learned was suddenly perverted?
And he……
He let them consume him.
I opened my black eyes.
Sweating.
Shaking.
He gave in.
But……
Was it all giving in……for us?
Fl-Flash!
I blinked.
A bright, red strobe.
A piercing, crimson beam.
A laser.
A laser sight.
Trained on my forehead.
No!
I gasped and ducked—
POW!
A sniper bullet sailed in through a dozen branches and exploded madly into the center of the 'cross' stone.
SHATTER!
I rolled on the floor.
The red laser point trailed me.
POW! POW! P-POW!
I desperately murked, dove, and tumbled out of the way.
PIFFT! P-PIFFT! Clumps of dirt blew up from the projectiles.
I slid up with my back to a headstone.
Panting.
Shivering.
The red dot lit my chest. Heart's side.
Rrrrred AVIARY!
I held my breath and teleported.
POW!
A gashing hole ate through the gravestone from the high caliber.
I limped up to my feet, blurred in and around headstones, weaving….
I leapt over a long gray slab, tripped over another tomb, and came splashing down onto the cold dirt path between the rows.
THWAP!
I winced.
A red glow…
"…..," I turned and looked up.
The branches were swaying. The air crew colder. Staler. Something shifted and something leapt and soon a red, billowing body was sailing down at me on crimson streams.
FWOOOOOOSH!
I made a face of horror. Adrenaline and fear and urine…
I rolled out of the way.
SLIIIINK! Something ate into earth and stone behind me.
I dove with a mute howl and rolled down an incline in the path.
Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP!
Something red and frothing cold flames surged after me.
I rolled to my knees and sprang forth.
SLIIIIICE!
Something sharp cut up the earth behind me.
My legs shivered numb to meet my metal prosthetic's throbbing in my chest.
I rolled from my landing and collapsed over a string of gravestones besides a tall pine tree.
The red-streaking figure blurred past me, and as it did…a trio of dark black spheres lifted up and fell down around me.
Th-Thump! Thump!
I gasped, black eyes wide.
Carbonite charges.
Click-Click-Click-Click-Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!
I panted. I looked up.
The pine tree….
I pulsed murk and vaulted up.
KABOOOOOOOM!
Flame and granite shrapnel flew up after me.
I twirled in the air, planted my feet against the body of the pine tree trunk, and pushed off.
PHOOOOMB!
A cloud of flame burst up after me, enveloping the pine tree.
I burst through the amber fires in a streak of murk. I sailed out like a mid-air torpedo over the burning graveyard and down towards the lower slope of the forested hill. I slapped through tree branches and pine needles and saw a nimble figure billowing forth red, standing on a branch and facing me. Something lifted in the figure's grasp. Glinting. Double-edged. Serrated and ravenous.
Cold.
RRRRREDDD AVIARY!
I flew into the jaws of death.
My black eyes twitched.
A glint.
A touch of cold.
FLASH!
"J-Jordan! Oh god…what did they do to your eyes! What are they doing to the two of you!"
FLASH!
I flew my mouth open in a mute howl and raised Myrkblade.
Something inside me pulsed.
Like the first breath of a child after labor.
Springing forth from the womb.
The most painful movement in the world.
Life.
FL-FLASH!
My black eyes flickered a brief white and returned with a swing of Myrkblade straight through Red Aviary.
SL-SLASH!
And somehow…
I broke on through.
FWOOOOSH!
I sailed out into naked air.
Plummeting.
Soaring down the countryside.
The world spun.
The trees vomited and swallowed me interchangeably.
Metropolis did flips and….
THWIIISH—SLAP!
I landed hard on the angled, shingled rooftop to a building.
Oof!
I rolled, tumbled, and ragdolled painfully off the structure.
Th-Thwump!
I landed hard on asphalt with a shattered shield of murk.
I tumbled one last time and ended against the tire of a hearse.
Thud!
I winced.
"…….."
I looked up.
Shaking all over.
A funeral home.
A parking lot………
Only a few cars populated the concrete space.
Six bright lampposts illuminated the lot.
Crickets chirped in the elevated forest and cemetery all around me.
Flies and other nightly insects fluttered around the bright lamps.
The old, brown building of the funeral home rested comfortably in the dark.
The hearse, also silent.
And….
And the chills had faded.
Red Aviary had retreated.
I breathed out a sigh of relief and smiled painfully.
I……
I made it……
THWOOOOOSH-GRIP!
I wheezed for breath.
HOIST!
I was raised mercilessly to a face.
A skull-like, metal face.
Joints and jawline smoking.
Entire titanium exoskeleton steaming from the golden fires below.
"You look worse for wear, Squirrel boy….," Metallo hissed. "Nnngh!"
He shoved me against the hearse.
CL-CLANK!
I exhaled painfully and fell to my knees.
The automobile had dented from where I was slammed into it.
I hunched over, coughing up blood.
Wincing….
"Don't think you can win my sympathies after leaving me to roast down there in that god-forsaken tunnel….," Metallo bent over and leered at me. "Triangular lost a good fraction of their commodities thanks to you."
I looked up. Wheezing.
SLAM!
His fist flew in my face.
I ragdolled across the pavement of the parking lot. My shades flew off.
"But worst of all…," I heard him tread slowly towards me. "You made me lose a bit of my decency. And I do not like that. No, not one bit."
I struggled to get up. I planted Myrkblade into the ground and hoisted my body skyward.
I opened my naked eyes.
FLASH! The glow of the parking lot lamps stabbed my eyes blind.
I clenched my eyes shut and howled mutely.
Aaaagh! God!
FWOOOSH-THWUMP!
Metallo's foot slammed into my ribcage.
I tumbled blindly across the lot and up against the body of a van.
I struggled to my wobbling knees and stuck my metal arm out. Murking.
As soon as I kicked my spatial sense into gear, I felt Metallo flying at me with a fist into my sternum.
"RAAAUGH!"
WHAM!
The breath left me in a huge wheeze.
I bent over.
He forced me to stand up with a strong knee to the forehead.
WHAP!
I stumbled back.
I sensed his arms rushing at me.
Gr-Grip!
He grabbed my shoulders, took a digital breath, and head-butted me mercilessly.
SMACK!
I flew back against the window of the van.
CRACK!
Spiderweb fractures formed in the glass from where my skull impacted.
"RAAAUGH!" I sensed Metallo's fist come hurtling at me.
I ducked.
SHATTER!
Under a rain of glass shards, I blindly struck Myrkblade against his chest and then performed a jab to his face. CL-CLANK! SMACK!
He took the impacts and—growling—grabbed my sword arm before flinging me hard across the lot and into a lamppost.
THWAP!
SLUMP!
I landed on the ground. Bleeding. Bruised. Almost broken.
The thundering footsteps of Metallo announced his angry advance.
He came to a stop before me.
I faintly sensed his metal jaws tightening as he hissed and said: "Some way or another…all heroes will fall. Whether it's Triangular, the Parasite, or your own bleeding heart." He leered above me, clenching his fists. "Morals are shifting. The world changes anew. Kiss your stupid legacy goodbye."
Ch-Chtink! Chtunk!
The sound of mini-rockets loading.
I began to fade. Murk dried up and shrunk back into my body. My spatial sense flickered. I breathed my last breaths…and they were cold and copper ones.
Then….from the edge of the lot…
Swish-Swish-Swish-Swish-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!
Something struck Metallo and he jolted.
"Augh!" A stumbling noise. A whirring. A gasp. "Bloody land 'o Goshen! Not! You!"
SWOOOOOSH-THWAP!
The clanking sound of Metallo's body rolling across the lot lit my ears.
I panted.
I felt a swish of air.
A warm wind.
Then—
CL-CLANG!
"Augh!" Metallo electronically roared. His feet made stomping sounds. Standing up. "What? NO!"
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!
Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep.
SWOOOSH!
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
"AAAAAAAAAA…."
PHOOOOOOOOOOOMB!
The entire parking lot shook.
Heat.
Flickering amber light through the membrane of my eye lids.
I shuddered.
A last breath of wind.
Then….
All was still, save for the crackling noise of distant flames.
"………………….."
I took a deep breath.
I winced.
I crawled across the lot.
I felt around.
I murked my fingers.
I covered the asphalt with spatial sense.
And…
I found them.
My shades.
CHIIIING!
I sheathed Myrkblade, reached down, and slipped my shades on.
Once covered, I fluttered open my black eyes.
I winced some at the bright flames.
Everything came into focus.
The dented cars.
The bright lampposts.
The ball of fire.
Even scrapes and spots of blood on the gravel.
My blood.
I stood up on wobbly feet and limped towards the fire.
A crater had formed on the edge of the parking lot from a high-impact explosive.
Trees and railing had parted on the edge of the lot….leading to another slope that gradually angled down towards the City.
It was where Metallo inevitably plunged from the projectile.
But how?
Who?
I took a deep breath.
I gazed sickly past the flame.
And….
I froze.
My heart stopped.
My black eyes widened.
"……….."
I limped.
Limped.
Limped across the lot.
Towards a lamppost besides the fire.
Th-Thwump!
I fell on my knees.
I kept going, regardless.
Half-crawling.
Half limping.
I willed myself with every aching muscle and ounce of strength toward the lamppost.
I gripped it.
Hugged it.
I raised myself up.
Panting.
Tensing.
Till I came to eye-level with what I saw.
And I was still.
Cold as a ghost.
My lips parted.
I raised a metal hand up and yanked something sharp out of the metal stalk of the lamppost.
Gazing at it.
Mind blank.
"………"
It was a birdarang….