Chapter 18

I own nothing

Ichigo had made a fast detour to drop chad off at the safe house, saying that it was too dangerous to go where they were going, and that he needed to be able to cut lose without worrying excessively about chad. Chad understood that he would only be a liability without some speed boosting move, or until he got better control of his powers, and agreed. Ichigo had just caught up with the others and landed on the roof of the base when Heller's phone rang. He answered to hear "Sergeant, why are you so upset? Have I done something to displease you?"

Heller began to grow angry at the concerned and confused tone of the doctors voice as he said "drop the act, you piece of shit. You think you can play us like this?"

"Well… I think I already have." The tone of the doctor became darker as a helicopter with a search light on rose up from the side of the base and began to fire its machine guns.

"RUN!" Heller yelled as he and his friends leapt of the roof to the ground below. Ichigo and Rukia looked around as saw a few tanks and platoons of Blackwatch coming up the street, armed and ready to fire. Heller said "we need to go now!"

He concentrated on an area a few blocks away as he gathered biomass to his legs in an attempt to use flash step. As he kicked off, he managed to do it, appearing on the roof of some building, with Rukia and Ichigo standing next to him. They looked at him, impressed.

Rukia said "well done Heller. Not many people can pull of flash step like that on impulse without some serious training. But what do we do now? Koenig could be anywhere by now."

Heller was about to answer when they heard over Blacknet some commander back where they had just left telling Koenig that they had escaped. He said they that had better not find him, but told the doctor to calm down, his location was top secret, he transferred him there himself. Heller looked up as he said "there's your answer."

He used flash step to the roof top overlooking the disorientated mass of Blackwatch and sent out a hunter pulse that rebounded from inside a tank. Heller pointed and shouted at his friends as he jumped down "I GOT HIM, YOU TAKE THE OTHERS!"

Ichigo hit the ground and gathered some red energy in front of him while holding Zangetsu horizontal before him before saying "Hadō #32. Ōkasen" which sent out a wide arm of red light that exploded and killed several of the forces there while the resulting explosion sent several more flying.

Rukia appeared behind the force and quickly used here second dance "firing the flash frozen air forward far enough to freeze several of the tanks and soldiers but to leave the tank Heller was going after and Ichigo untouched.

Heller quickly tore off the door to the inside of the tank and grabbed the commander just as the doctor screamed over Blacknet "COMMANDER, DON'T YOU DARE LET HIM EAT YOU!"

This was a useless warning as Heller took the commanders head in his claws and crushed it before consuming him. He got the information that Koenig was at base Adams. He and the other quickly killed off the rest of the group before using flash step to head to base Adams.

5 minutes later

Heller and the others appeared on the deserted highway and looked over the base. It was on lockdown, no way in or out and with extra security everywhere to give them a Hell of a time getting in.

Ichigo turned to Heller and asked "any ideas?"

Heller looked over the base and thought about what he knew about the protocols for lockdown. He didn't have any ideas until he noticed that there were several gas tanks around the building and grinned.

He pointed at them and said "the only way we're going to get him out is like if you were getting out rats. You smoke 'em."

Ichigo and Rukia looked where he was pointing and immediately got the plan. He told them to take one each, Ichigo taking the farthest one, Rukia 2nd farthest, and he would take the third. And to do it fast and be ready to fight while the fires burned enough to cancel lock down.

They went into action. Ichigo made the first move by appearing in the air above the base and falling as he swung his sword while yelling "GETSUGA TENSHO!"

The attack hit the ground and exploded, scattering the forces there and instantly blowing the gas tank, causing a blazing inferno to appear on one side of the base. Rukia was next as she appeared on the perimeter wall above the tank. She pointed her open palm and gathered red energy in the size of a tennis ball there with her other arm providing support as she yelled "Hadō #31. Shakkahō!" the ball flew towards the tank as she used flash step to disappear. The ball hit the tank and went off like a grenade, causing the tank to explode just like the first. Heller took a more normal approach, appearing before a Blackwatch guard on the roof and killing him before taking the rocket launcher he had and firing one at his tank, blowing it like the others. Blackwatch had gotten the threat and began to respond as Ichigo went into Bankai state and Rukia released he sword to begin slicing into the guards. Ichigo flew through the ranks along with Rukia, killing the guards and phase ones with more ease due to the element of surprise, while Heller provided support by firing what was left of the missiles from the roof before jumping down and leaping to the fight. They fought as hard as they could to kill and distract the guards while the flames burned out of control. Finally Heller heard Koenig say over the base PA system "HURRY UP AND PUT OUT THOSE BLAZES"

The base commander yelled back "WE CAN'T, THEY'RE TOO STRONG AND THESE BASTARDS ARE TEARING US APART."

"DAMMIT! PILOT, READY THE HELICOPTOR!"

Heller looked around to see Koenig come out the door on the roof. Heller leapt up and began to run after him but couldn't catch him before the doctor dove into the gun ship just as it began to life of and fly out at high speed with the pilot saying "We have Koenig, beginning to fall back."

Koenig sounded furious as he said "don't retreat you idiot! Do you think I ordered a gun ship to amuse myself!? Attack those kids!"

The helicopter turned around and hovered as it began to line up its shot. By this time, more patrols had arrived, forcing the group to think fast to deal with them and the helicopter as it began to rain down gun fire and missiles. They dodged and fought as much as they could before they heard the pilot say over the intercom system in the helicopter "Hey what are you doing?!"

Koenig snarled back "improving your weapons system, just fly the damn helicopter"

Heller looked around and then looked at Ichigo and yelled "ICHIGO, I NEED YOU TO GIVE ME A BOOST!"

"HANG ON A MINUTE!" he yelled back before he sped through and cut off the heads of every guard around Heller and Rukia. Then he appeared behind Heller and said "I can give you a boost, just jump towards that helicopter with everything you got."

Heller nodded just as said helicopter stopped.

"PILOT WHY ARE WE STOPPED!?"

"IT'S BECAUSE OF YOUR GOD DAMN TINKERING, IT'S OVERLOADED THE NAV AND WEAPONS CONTROLS!"

"WELL FIX IT YOU IDIOT!"

Heller muttered "not likely. Ichigo, NOW!" Heller yelled as he leapt towards the helicopter with his arms in claw form. Ichigo pointed towards Heller with his index finger and yelled while concentrating his power "HADO #1. SHO!"

Heller felt like he had been hit by a tank round, but went flying forward towards the helicopters side. As he passed by the windshield he saw doctor Koenig's furious face before he flew past and dug his claws through the side of the helicopter as he flew past. He landed on the ground and rolled, before standing up and seeing the helicopter falling to the ground with flames coming out the side. He flash stepped to the roof top of a building along with the others to watch it burn.

Heller said in a satisfied voice while turning away "and that's the end of him."

"Wait. Look." Ichigo pointed at the wreck as a bleeding Koenig fell out of the cockpit. He weakly stood clutching his side while he staggered down an alley.

"Damn. He's a tough cockroach, I'll give him that"

In the alley

The group flash stepped to find the good doctor collapsed on the ground, still clutching his side as Heller grabbed the back of his neck and said "it's over doc." As he shifted his other arm to claws while the other 2 stood by his sides.

The doctor chuckled as he said "oh, on the contrary, it's just begun."

Then he lashed out with a backwards kick that sent Heller flying backwards into a car, leaving a dent in it as he fell to the ground. Before the other 2 could react, he delivered punches to their stomachs, causing them to bend over, hit their chins with his elbows, and then jumped up and kicked them back while flipping through the air and landing on his feet while they went flying backwards and skidded across the ground before stopping next to Heller.

They stood up feeling disoriented as Heller asked "what the hell are you?"

The doctor lifted his arms to shoulder height before familiar black and red tendrils covered his arms, then receded to show two axe like blades at the end of his arms while the doctor looked at Heller with disgust.

"I'm what you could have been."

Then he disappeared and reappeared in front of Heller, stabbed him through the chest and threw him over his shoulder. The other 2 moved fast to catch him using flash step. They caught him as his wound healed and they looked at Koenig in hatred and confusion.

"I'm what you were supposed to be."

They all stood ready as the doctor simply paced back and forth before them, moving with much more grace then he had before.

"I'm going to show mercer. Show he's mistaken about you. And then I'll be there, watching you, as he kills you, and your freak of nature friends."

Ichigo felt hatred as he mentioned mercer killing Orihime and charged in with his blade raised to deliver a down ward slash. The doctor side stepped at the last second and delivered a kick to Ichigo's face, sending him into the wall in the alley.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia yelled as she prepared to attack. She quickly had to block when the doctor appeared and slashed sideways at her.

'So strong!' she thought before she was sent flying backwards and had to skid to regain balance. Then Ichigo and Heller appeared beside her and looked at the doctor while he simply smirked.

Heller said "he's too strong and fast. Ichigo, I think it's time for that final form you mentioned."

Ichigo nodded in agreement before being forced to scatter as the doctor charged forward while swinging his arms with no room for mistake. Heller fought with his claws as best he could, blocking and slicing when he could, but the doc got in more hits than he did before leaping back and wiping his mouth with a smug grin.

"Oh please. You can't beat me no matter what you do."

Ichigo reached up and curled his fingers like he had to scratch as he said "are you so sure about that…

Ichigo brought his hand down and put on his mask, unleashing his hollow powers as he growled in his hollow voice "…doctor?"

Heller felt Ichigo's power grow like before but now could see Ichigo's face. He had a white mask with black river like markings moving vertically down and over the eye holes, with human looking teeth in the mouth area. Then Heller looked at Ichigo's eyes and froze. They were black with golden pupils and as they glanced at Heller, he felt like he was looking into the eyes of a demon that could kill him with no effort whatsoever. They were the eyes of death and a murderer.

The doctor got into a stance as he felt the power behind the boy grow heavy and dark.

'What is this? This boy never had this sort of power before. Where did it come from?'

And as our hero prepared to fight this super charged villain, with the air filled with thick tensions and sparks flying, the two super beings looked into each other's eyes as they prepared for their fight to the death, with Ichigo saying the perfect line for this legendary battle.

Ichigo shifted his gaze back to the doc as he said "so… what's up doc?"