Chapter 15

I own nothing

We saw a powerful creature, built with a durable, obese body, stubby and thick legs, powerful arms, and a jaw broken into three separate parts. Its back was turned towards us as it lifted a civilian in its gigantic, boulder like hands. It put the civilians head in its mouth and ripped it off, chewing it with sickening crunches of bone. As we stood disgusted it turned around and saw us standing there. It threw away the rest of the civilians body pounded its fists against the floor and roared its defiance.

Rukia yelled "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?" over the roar.

Heller yelled back "DON'T KNOW, JUST KILL IT."

They spread out, with Rukia and Heller going to the sides while Ichigo ran up and leapt into the air, swinging his sword down in a powerful slice. The juggernaut raised its arms and blocked the strike with no apparent effort. As Ichigo looked on in shock, the juggernaut threw him off and slammed its fists down to produce a stronger shock wave, which was accompanied with several blackish red spikes heading Heller's way. He quickly moved out of the way and leapt towards it slashing with his claws. Again the juggernaut blocked and threw him off with little effort. Rukia stabbed the ground and said "white tree". A trail of ice zigzagged towards the juggernaut and began to freeze it's legs but the juggernaut just shattered the ice.

Heller said "it's no good. Nothing we have can scratch it."

Ichigo said "I can try and hold it in place long enough to hit its upper arm. But not for long."

Heller nodded and he said "me and Rukia will take off the arms. Just give us the signal when you're ready."

Ichigo nodded and began to try to seal the juggernauts movements with kido. As the juggernaut rose its arms to unleash another wave of spikes, Ichigo quickly said while pointing at the juggernaut "Bakudō #61. Rikujōkōrō" after a brief yellow flash at his fingertip, six thin but board bands of light hit the juggernaut in its midsection, temporarily stopping it.

"NOW!"

Rukia quickly sliced off the left arm while Heller cut off the right. The juggernaut broke free, but with no arms left, Heller ran up to it, jumped on its chest and removed it's head with both of his arms in claw form while consuming it.

Heller's body began to glow a light red as he clutched his stomach groaning. Then he shot his arms out and up creating two shields out of them. They both were curved around Heller and taller than he was while looking like stone, with spikes on the outside and cracks that glowed the color consist with infected creatures. He grinned as he said "just try to hit me now."

His arms quickly broke back down into his normal form as the doors raised, letting in several Blackwatch soldiers. One kneeled down with a missile launcher, took aim at Heller and fired. Just as it was about to hit, Heller shifted his arms into shield and hit the missile just right to send it back, causing the group to be sent flying in several directions, while the one who fired the missile was hit directly.

"HOLY SHIT! HOTILE JUST TOOK A DIRECT HIT WITH NO DAMAGE!"

"THIS IS COTTENMOUTH, FOCUS FIRE ON THOSE BASTARDS, TAKE THEM OUT!"

Heller simply laughed as he shifted his arm to tendrils and fired black hole attacks left and right while Rukia and Ichigo picked off those he missed. They fought their way out without much trouble and managed to escape the strike team sent to try and deal with them.

They all felt good, Heller especially. Mercer had been right; this infected DNA was making him stronger. And soon he would be strong enough to take down mercer for good. His phone rang, distracting him. As he picked up, he saw a frantic father.

"James, listen."

"Father? What's wrong?"

It's Blackwatch. They're outside attacking the church. They must've figured out I was talking to you."

Ichigo spoke up saying "Hang tight, we'll be right there."

"What? No I'm telling you so you'll stay away."

Heller said in a pissed off voice "and leave you to die? Screw that."

Rukia turned pale as a thought struck her "Our friends are there."

Ichigo looked shocked too. For some reason Orihime was the first thing to cross his mind. And then anger appeared as he said "Father we're coming no matter what. Come on we need to get going now. Heller, get on my back and make yourself as light as possible. And hold on tight."

Heller hung up and did what Ichigo asked. The next thing he knew was a massive amount of speed and wind as Ichigo used flash step to get to the church as fast as he could go. 5 seconds later they appeared in the street and looked at the situation. Blackwatch had tanks and bazookas firing on the church which was quickly becoming weaker while regular foot soldiers were firing their machine guns at the door to keep the people inside. Heller felt fury as he watched them blast the house of god where father Guerra was.

Ichigo felt the same anger for attacking the building where his friends was trapped. He looked at Heller and Rukia and said "we need to kill them all. Not matter what. Me and Rukia will take the soldiers, Heller you take the tanks."

He nodded while shifting one hand to claws and the other to tendrils. Ichigo then said "time to use those lessons from Yoruichi. Rukia, try to keep up."

She nodded as they turned then used flash step to move as fast as possible. Rukia was appearing behind and in front of soldiers using stabs and slashes to kill them while Ichigo used his speed at a higher level. He left several afterimages whenever he appeared and disappeared to kill over 20 soldiers in less than 6 seconds. While the remaining black watch clumped together to try and protect from the sneak attacks Ichigo just appeared in front of them and raised his open palm yelling "HADO # 88 Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō (Flying Dragon-Striking Heaven-Shaking Thunder Cannon)!" to send out a huge blast of electric blue light to cause an explosion killing them a huge number.

Meanwhile Heller jumped on to a tank and ripped of the TOW missile launcher it had, then leapt away while firing to blast it to shreds in mere moments. He and Ichigo make quick work of the other tanks. In no time they were all destroyed.

The church door opened and Orihime and chad ran out panting

"Orihime! Are you alright?!" Ichigo said as he ran towards her and hugged her tight to him, with her returning the hug.

"We're fine, but Blackwatch is sending reinforcements, and father Guerra can't walk, he got his leg crushed the falling stone. I can't heal him until we get somewhere safe. Renji and Uryū are looking after him for now"

"Then we'll fight here. Orihime you protect the church as best you can, chad, we're going to need anything you can bring to the fight."

They nodded and unleashed their power. Orihime used her Santen Kesshun to create a dome of golden light around the church, with her fairies inside the dome to prevent them from getting hurt. She stood in the door way so she could focus on maintaining the barrier. Chad's arms became covered in a white liquid before it solidified into his armor. His right arm became black with red designs covering the upper part while everything from his elbow to his wrist became his shield, black with red teeth and mouth design in it and the shield large enough to cover his body and shaped like a hexagon. His left arm became his left arm of the devil, unlike the other arm; this arm was white, with a red stripe running down the length of the center. His fingertips had red diamond shaped marks on them and a spike protruded from the shoulder with, two more, resembling claws, extend over his chest.

"Ichigo, if there was ever a time, I think it's time to use Bankai." Heller said as he saw the reinforcements turn onto their street. They saw well over 10 tanks 100 Blackwatch soldiers, and a personal helicopter with machine guns and missiles equipped to it.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes and nodded, getting ready to unleash his Bankai. Ichigo pointed his Zanpakuto straight in front of him while he braced his feet, placing both of his hands on the hilt, and flared his spirit pressure as the cloth of his Shikai wrapped around his arm and tightened. His spiritual power surged higher as he yelled out "BAN…KAI!"

A explosion of energy and smoke obscured Ichigo causing the Blackwatch reinforcements stop for a brief second. Heller felt like it was getting harder to breathe as he felt Ichigo's power. It felt like an ocean was above his head waiting to slam down on him. The smoke cleared to reveal Ichigo's Bankai. Unlike Reni's Bankai form, Ichigo's Bankai had shrunk his sword down to a daitō (Japanese long sword) with a black blade instead. The cross guard has four prongs bent out to form the shape of x with half of it turning to the side at a 90 degree angle. Instead of the cloth his Shikai form had, a short length of chain with a broken link at the end dangled from the base of the hilt. In addition to his sword, Ichigo's robe was replaced with a long-sleeved, ankle-length black coat (or shihakushō) with red lining on the inside of it, while being closed at his chest and left to flare out into ragged ends. "Ichigo smirked at Heller as he said "well Heller, meet Tensa Zangetsu. What do you think?"

Heller looked at Ichigo's sword and said honestly "I wasn't expecting something so small. I thought it would be like Reni's, a huge powerful weapon. To be honest, that thing looks weak."

Ichigo smirked. Most people said that about his Bankai and they were always surprised at the result.

"Watch this."

Ichigo turned his head towards the convoy and stepped forward. He swung his sword behind his head and then swung it forward quickly, saying calmly "Getsuga Tensho"

Unlike the other Getsuga Tensho's Heller had seen, this one was pitch black with a red glow around the edges. It looked bigger and moved faster than his other times and it curved upward to slice the helicopter in half then fourths as it moved with the speed of a jet plane. The remaining forces got out of the way of the flaming remains fell. Heller watched as the tanks began to fire at the church while the guards fired their guns shouting "TAKE THIS, YOU ASSHOLES!"

As the first round of bullets approached Heller braced for the slight sting of the bullets Rukia used flash step to vanish and chad brought up his shield to stop the bullets cold. But Heller was the most amazed when he turned to see Ichigo swing his sword with impossible speed, looking like nothing but a blur as it sliced bullets in half or hit them back with more force than they had come towards him with.

Ichigo turned to smirk while moving his arm fast enough to stop the bullets without looking and said "still think its weak, Heller?"

"Show-off."

Blackwatch in the meantime was scared shitless. How the hell was that kid moving so damn fast? They were getting shot with their own ammo and he hadn't moved from the spot. The commander yelled "TANKS! FOCUS FIRE ON THOSE DAMN BRATS." Half of them complied while the others kept firing, unable to get through whatever that dome of light was. They had fired everything they had at it and it couldn't make a damn scratch.

Chad decided to make the first move. When they stopped firing for a brief instant, he charged up one of his favored attacks. As he focused power in his left arm its red lines and teeth began to glow while he pulled back his fist and shouted "El Directo!" as he punched towards the opposing force. A ball of sprit energy raced forward and struck on of the tanks, causing it to go flying backwards with a huge dent in it, running over their own troops.

Heller felt like the slaughter was too easy. That changed when the tanks began to fire everything they had all at once. Ichigo saw the attack coming and said "Bakudō #81 Dankū". A thin clear rectangular shield rose up from the ground, wide enough to shield the group. It took all the punishment that Blackwatch could deal out with showing a dent or scratch.

Rukia appeared. She said "I think it's time to wrap this up. What do you guys think?"

Ichigo nodded as he said "I'll take care of it."

And Heller watched Ichigo simply disappeared. He looked around to see the Blackwatch soldiers falling to the ground being killed or severally injured. The tanks were sliced in half and in seconds the group was only a quarter of what it had been in the beginning.

Ichigo thought with a smirk "might be vain, but let's show off a little." With that he appeared back in front of Dankū and then moved his hands in several gestures. These were the ones needed to form a dome-like barrier around the force that Hachi had taught him. He then leapt on top and began charging a cero. The Blackwatch was shooting at the barrier trying to escape, but to no avail. Ichigo opened a small hole in the barrier and said "Enjoy."

With that, he dropped the baseball sized energy blast inside while closing the hole as it went off. It caused the ground to shake and rumble as the force was contained in the barrier, though it caused a small crack. When the ground stopped shaking, and the explosions inside had stopped, Ichigo stepped of the barrier and released it, letting out the smoke inside and showing a section of street that had been destroyed in a perfect circle from the barrier. Inside one could see several twisted bodies and pieces of metal from the guns and tanks. Ichigo nodded as he went back to where his friends looked on in awe.

Rukia and Heller looked at him in awe. Heller because of how much power Ichigo had to be able to do something like that and Rukia because of how strong had become ever since they had meet. That boy who had been struggling to fight his first hollow now had as much, if not more, power then a captain. And yet his person was still the same, loyal, stubborn, and yet gentle to those who needed help.

The barrier around the church then collapsed as Orihime fell to the ground panting. She had never tried to maintain such a large barrier for so long. She felt like she had just run a marathon on an empty stomach. She looked up as Ichigo walked and lowered himself to put a hand of concern on her shoulder as he asked "are you okay?"

"I'm…fine… just need to get back my breath." She said while gulping down air. She was surprised as Ichigo pulled her into a hug and said "I was worried about you."

She felt like she was dreaming. Had he really just said that? And did he mean in a friendly way or a more personal way?

But she was pulled out of her thoughts as Heller said "Father Guerra. How is he?"

She pulled out of Ichigo's hug as she said "he's got a broken leg but I can heal him now that the excitement's over."

They headed back into the church. Several pieces of stone had fallen and crushed the pews. A few fires burned while at the altar, father Guerra sat holding his leg, which was crushed beyond recognition, Uryū was helping him as much as he could while Renji stood with Zabimaru in its Shikai state to block any more falling debris

Renji gave a nod while Rukia ran over to look over him. He and Uryū had a few scratches but were otherwise fine. Father Guerra was disoriented because of the pain but he sounded outraged as he said "They attacked a church. A church."

Heller took charge as he said "Orihime, do what you can for father, we need to heal him and get out of here as soon as possible."

She nodded as father said "I should've let them take me."

Heller spoke in an angry tone as Orihime began her Sōten Kisshun (Twin Sacred Return Shield) technique and covered Father in a small golden dome "Father, if you let them take you, then what would they have done? We don't have time for this melodrama crap."

Orihime concentrated on the wounds. He had minor scratches over his body that was easy to heal, but his leg took longer because it was more severe.

Heller in the meantime watched in interest as fathers leg began to heal back into its normal shape. He hadn't appreciated Orihime's healing abilities until now that he was seeing them in action now. It almost looked like when he regenerated limbs. It was remarkable.

Within a few minutes, father had been completely healed and was thinking clearly. He sat up and looked himself over. His body and even clothes had been healed to before Blackwatch had attacked. He looked in Orihime in awe as he asked "how did you do this?"

Orihime looked down as she said "my 'healing' technique isn't healing in the normal sense. I can turn back time to when an object or person was in a different state then reject what had happened to them. It's event rejection."

He was awed as he looked at her. He was about to comment when he felt the rebel in him take over. "we need to go. I know a safe house we can go to. We can stay there and regroup."

They all nodded as they quickly left the burning church.