225. A Hard Act to Follow part 10
SWOOOSH!
TH-THWOMP!
I landed hard on the apartment floor with a halo of glass surrounding me.
THWOOOSH!
WHAM!
Bane landed, smashing through a coffee table of mahogany and sending splinters flying.
"Nnnngh…," he snarled, teeth gritted and neck throbbing in tense, venomed glory. He panted…heaved…and stood up, his every joint popping.
SL-SLAM!
The double doors to the Ventriloquist's bedroom flew back open from Rhino's kick. Mugsy and the other four thugs rushed out, shouting. Weapons drawn.
"It's Bane!"
"And the kid!"
"They're back!"
"Smoke 'em!"
BANG! BANG!
BL-BLAM! BLAM!
Bullets exploded and impacted the carpet all around me. I flinched and gasped, my naked eyes twitching. My body….freezing.
Rrrred Aviary……
"RAAAAUGH!" Bane picked up a huge slab of splintered table and held it against the bullets. He shielded himself, warded off the first volley of gunshots, then heaved the furniture chunk straight at the line of thugs.
They gasped and jumped left and right.
SM-SMASH! The table splinter tore what was left of the bedroom doors off the hinges.
Rhino rushed in, whipping out a grenade. He yanked the pin out with his teeth, grunted, and tossed the projectile as strongly as he could.
THWIIIIIISSSSH!
It reached Bane.
Bane charged and back-handed the grenade away.
THWAP!
The grenade flew across the room, bounced past my flinching body, and rolled out the window and beyond the fire escape of the cold alleyway beyond.
POW!
The building shook.
The floor vibrated.
Bane was charging across the interior, arms swinging.
Rhino picked up a wooden, cedar statue and raised it to swing like a club into Bane's incoming skull.
SWOOOOSH! CRACK! Bane charged into Rhino, absorbing the statue and smashing it into wooden shreds as if it was a toothpick. The mercenary grabbed Rhino by the neck, spun, and flung him against a wall forcing a rich painting to rip and collapse to the floor. CL-CLANK!
Mugsy got up on his knees and fired round after round with his .45. BLAM! BLAM! BL-BLAM! BLAM!
Bane dodged, sidestepped, and rushed across the room. One bullet bounced off the metal part of the mercenary's helmet. Bane merely shouted all the more and brought his foot down where Mugsy was. SWOOOSH!
Mugsy held his breath and rolled to the side.
SMASH!
A hole in the carpet formed.
Mugsy lay helplessly on his back.
Bane pivoted, brought his hands together, and snarled as he prepared to break the man's ribs in two with dual fists.
WHUMP! THWUMP! Two of Two-Face's thugs jumped on Bane's shoulders and tried to double-choke hold him from behind. Bane struggled, thrashed about, and stomped across the apartment trying to loosen them.
The other thugs gradually got up to their weary feet.
I too was struggling to stand. Every bit of my insides was shivering. I felt like I would snap in two like a twig. I shuddered and exhaled cold vapors.
Rrrrred Aviarrrrrry……
Don't you all see?
He's here.
He's here.
I have to flee……
I turned around to blur out the window--
"Where do you think you're goin'?" Rhino frowned. WHAM! A fist to my face.
I sputtered and stumbled back. Weakly.
GRIP! He had me by the throat. He yanked me around and planted a gun into my skull. Cl-Click!
I shuddered. Suddenly too weak and too blinded and too numb to do anything.
Rhino stood behind me, fiercely holding me with his pistol to my head. He looked towards the bedroom doors and brightened. I soon found out why.
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
Bulletfire ricocheted all around Bane and the two thugs.
Bane came to a stop. He ceased struggling with the two men and glared over at the door.
There, the Ventriloquist stood. The Professor stood…jittery and nervous. A scarred 'Scarface' sat in his arms. Letters carved in his head. His leg skewered and the switchblade still stuck in one googly eye. He looked like a zombie Fraggle in the arms of Harry Truman's evil twin. And in his tiny wooden grasp was an even tinier—but lethal—tommy gun….with a smoking barrel.
"All right, yous mugs! Scarface says playtime is over! And unless you want to go nappy-nap for the better long years of eternity, I suggest you keep your hands in ya lap and shuddup! Bane…Noir….I'm talkin' ta yous!"
"……," I shuddered…nearly collapsing in Rhino's grip.
"Usted pedazo de basura…," Bane seethed as the thugs peeled off him. The henchmen stepped back at a safe distance from Bane and trained their guns on him. Mugsy joined them. The tall, seething mercenary started to 'deflate' as the venom decreased in his body and Bane's angry resolve took cognitive function. "…you would stand by while my entire team was ripped to shreds." He shook a fist at Scarface across the way. "Whatever happened to our alliances of old, hibrido? Does that mean anything to you?"
"Look, yous overgrown fruitcake!" Scarface snarled back. He seemed ready to fall apart. The knife wobbled in his plastic eye-socket. "…ya signed ya own death warrant da moment yous decided to team up against this here Red Aviary!"
"You cling to your criminal monopoly….you are weak! You are debil! All of you! Demasiados debiles! Because of you pathetic whelps, what scant number of Gotham City's elite is left will be laid bare before the consuming breath of the Parasite!"
"Boss….," Mugsy hissed. "What are you doing? Shoot 'em! Don't let the creep talk anymore! This is Bane, for God's sake!"
"You're next, chico!" Bane pointed. "Each and everyone of you! I swear on the graves of Fugate and Tetch, I am going to break all you up to Two-Face's split cabesa! Do you hear me? Voy a romperle!"
"Heh! You're one ta threat!" the Professor shook as the dummy swiveled to gestured towards me with his machine gun. "Looks like your friend got heres before ya did! How's that for bad coordination?"
I merely shuddered. I was sweating…and yet I was freezing alive. I looked straight up in Rhino's grasp through the shattered ceiling panels and saw a sky.
A red sky.
Dripping….
Bane snarled: "He's no friend of mine! Once I'm done with you, I'm going to snap him in half! You Triangular shitheads messed with the wrong mercenary!"
"Don't you talk to the boss like that!" Rhino shouted.
"I'm warnin' yous, punk! This is the last night yous ever gonna see!"
"Que va! I want to see you just try and shoot me!"
"Watch him!"
"He's gonna bolt for it!"
"What are you waiting for, boss? SHOOT HIM!"
"Don't yous give me orders!"
"For Christ's sake, just….j-just…………hey……hey, what's wrong with him?" It was the voice of Mugsy. He was looking at me. Blinking.
I shivering heavily.
Hanging off of Rhino's wrists like a crucifix.
Panting…hyperventilating…
Smoke and mirrors.
By his breath……I am freezing.
By his breath……I am dying.
"Hey! Yous! Smoke kid!"
"…….," I clenched my eyes shut. But I couldn't chase it out of my obsidian optics.
Red flames.
The earth vomiting.
Menstruating.
Blood and ice.
The wraith.
The reaper.
The Terminator.
"Uh….b-boss? I got a funny feeling…."
"Do any of you feel that chill?"
"HEY! TITAN! I'm talking to yous, ya monkey!"
"…….," I tilted my head up. I opened my black eyes. Somewhere deep inside of me, an adolescent boy dropped his red sword and collapsed in a field of tall grass surrounded by cedar trees. That boy suddenly turned into me…who swiftly turned into a caped vigilante with Robin's eyemask howling in sheer terror. The rush of a thousand ice birds flew out of his mouth and blanketed the landscape till they collapsed into the earth in exploding flesh and feathers. Red splashed upward, drenched the sky, and saturated the muddy earth with tears. And out from the waves emerged in frosty fervor an ivory watchtower with a swirling, pulsating light that flashed out the room and pulsed my black eyes WHITE!.
The Professor gasped. Scareface shook.
Bane's masked eyes narrowed. "Que en el nombre de Dios….?"
Fwoooosh………
A breeze bellowed in from the November night outside. Lightly at first.
And then…
The lights started to flicker.
I shuddered instantly. God, no…… I shook…my knees wobbling. I can't go anywhere. I can't……
Another gust of wind. No, not wind. Breath.
FWOOOOSH!
Wood splinters clattered on the floor. A chandelier swung. Lamps shook and wobbled as the lights flickered more.
The thugs looked around. Shifting nervously.
Mugsy gulped: "The Hell is that…..?"
A light just above the Professor sparked white….white….white….
The old man looked up, lips quivering. "Uhm…..M-M-Mister Scarface?"
"What is it now, ya blockhead?"
White….white…..white……………..RED.
ZZZZTTT!
The lights blew out. One by one. POP! POP! P-POP! POP!
Sparks and glass shards fell across the shivering bodies in the darkened apartment.
"Aaugh!"
"Jesus!"
"The H-Hell?"
"M-M-M-Mister Sc-Scarface?"
Pitch black.
But I saw it.
I saw him.
Gasping.
He's here.
FWOOOOSH!
A streak of red.
People's eyes lit up in a crimson flash and were swallowed up by black again.
All except the Ventriloquist.
He jolted….
THWACCCCK!
…and was still.
Rhino shook behind me, his neck craning across the darkness. "B-Boss?"
Silence.
Then…
Th-Thump!
Two things rolled out onto the open floor like wooden balls.
Scarface's knife-pierced skull.
And another head. Wet and red-trailing across the carpet. The Professor.
"Holy shit!" Mugsy shouted. FWOOOSH! SNINNKKKTTT! Mugsy jolted, his mouth stuck open wide. A red, two-edged sword was piercing through his skull and coming out through his lips.
"MUGSY!" Rhino screamed.
"Dios Mia!"
"The Parasite!" thugs shook in the dark. They ignored Bane, whipped out dual pistols, and fired madly at the opposite side of the room.
BLAM! BL-BLAM! POW!
The bullets sailed into Mugsy's writhing, dangling body. Some sailed past him…only to be consumed in a swirling red vapor. SNKKKKKKKTTTT! For a moment, I thought Mugsy was spontaneously undressing his coat. It turns out he was actually being ripped in half down the middle. A burst of lung matter and intestines, and something swam out of his torso with a flaming leap towards the other side of the room.
FWOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!
Red trails.
A kaleidoscope of crimson strobes, accentuating a different caricature of screaming lips on each and every one of the thugs' faces.
"Aaaaaugh!"
"NNNNNGH! JESUS!"
"GET IT! SHOOT IT! SHOOT ITTTT!"
RRRREEDDDD AVIARRRRY!
I shook all over.
Black eyes rolling back.
The sky falling. Red leaking. Red laughing.
SLIIIIIIICE!
"NNNKgggRAAAAUGHAAA!"
SP-SPLORCCH!
A shoulder blade went in one direction. A rib cage went in another.
Spinning red vapor. A singing sword with a gleaming, ornamental hilt.
One thug ran out of ammo and stumbled one second too much. "AAAAAAAA—" FWOP! His head spun on his neckhole and rolled off.
Bane gasped. He flexed his arms and swung a meaty fist into the red vapor.
The red cloud spun and 'splashed' in place.
Bane's arm snagged. His face tensed. When he brought his hand back….it was missing. "AAAAAUGH!"
FWOOOOOSH!
The red streak was over me. Freezing. Trailing red frost in the air.
I gasped. My eyes flickered white and I convulsed all over.
Annie……
Annie, run.
You are real.
Please, go.
Stay alive……
SLAAAAAAASSSH!
"AAAAAUGH! GODDDDD!" a thug was writhing, his shoulder cleaved to his hip by a gut-ripping sword. His head twitched every which way and bellowed…bellowed…bellowed before swallowing the barrel of a red-trailing shotgun to the mouth. BLAM! His mind flew across the room in a sugar spray.
"Oh Jesus….Oh Jesus…Oh Jesus….," Rhino let go of me and stumbled backwards.
I limped forward. Freezing. Shivering. Hyperventilating.
My left arm was….
Dead.
Dying.
Rebirthing….
RRRREDD AVIARRRY!
A body washing up a river.
Batman and Batgirl.
Screaming in their arms.
Three years.
Scars.
Scars…
Scars………
FWOOOOSH!
The red vapor soared straight towards me.
I gasped and flew myself to the floor, trembling.
"AAAAAAAUGH!" Rhino shouted before he lacked the vocal cords to shout anymore.
SLIIINK!SLAAASH!THUNK!
One last thumb was limping across the room. Grasping for the window. His eyes bulging.
FWOOOOOOSH!
The figure rushed towards him.
I took a shuddering breath.
You're a hero, Jordan.
You're a God Damn HERO!
GET THE HELL UP!
CHIIIIIIIING!
I sliced Myrkblade out into the red-warbling air and ran across the kaleidoscopic hell hole. Yelling mutely. The blade held high.
I blurred smokingly towards the back of the red-vapor.
The figure stopped. The crimson trails receded into a silhouette darker than my own Balance. A head turned. Tails. Red and black. A gnarled gloved outstretched. A flickering flame.
FLASH!
Ana.
The Master.
Sitting on the sidelines.
Watching the red one with his blade.
Dancing in the tall grass.
Ripping the soil out.
Reaping the green fields.
Panting.
Concentrating.
Hazel eyes strobing……strobing……RED!
FLASH!
I fell back.
My eyes were flickering white.
Fading.
Ice all over my figure.
I panted…sweating.
I looked up.
SPLOOOSH!
A fountain of hot red blood from the last thug drenched me.
I got a mouthful of the copper meat juice.
I sputtered and stumbled back.
Eyes streaming with tears.
"Nnnnnghhhh!" Bane hobbled, clutching his missing wrist.
I coughed, spat, and looked across the room at him. I stood with my back to the cold window. The November backdrop. The Month that was born to kill me.
Bane shook. Bane bled. The legendary mercenary of Gotham looked up. Dark eyes concave under his tense mask. He saw me.
I saw him.
And both of us saw the streak of red as it bathed over his face, cascaded to his side, and speedily sliced its way from his rib-cage to his rib-cage.
THNKKKKKKKKTTT!
FWOMP!
Bane fell in two halves. And his torso was still 'alive'.
"AAAAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAUGH! NNGHHAAAH! MRAAAHAAAAAAAAUGH!"
A figure solidified above him. CH-CHTUNK! A glint of metal aimed at Bane's throat.
BLAM!
Bane quieted.
………..
FWOOSH! The figure looked up at me.
I gasped.
He marched towards me. Dripping with red vapors….red breaths….red murk….red blood.
I took a shuddering breath. I raised Myrkblade. Shaking.
CHIIIIIIING!
Red Aviary raised his two-edged blade.
I stepped back once…twice…then stood my ground.
Give me strength……Ana……
And Red Aviary charged.
Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!
His sword held high.
Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!
I snarled, black eyes reflecting the incoming red wall.
Give……me……STRENGTH!
SWOOOOOSH!
I screamed an empty, scarred breath and slashed Myrkblade at the incoming reaper….