Chibiyu: Blegh. So this chapter wasn't supposed to be this long...
Nick: And she thought she didn't want to write another fight scene.
Chibiyu: I didn't! It just...got away from me.
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"Alright. But one shred of doubt, and I'm stopping you. Got it?"
Nick smirked and allowed himself to briefly lean on his brother. "Thanks, Joe."
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Cascadea, during the two brother's exchange, managed to catch her breath enough to let out a low, threatening growl.
"Burn me," she whispered, her voice colder than any ice, "And you will face my fury!"
She raced forward, the rest of the hoard following suit on the slippery terrain.
Nick nodded once to Joe, who still didn't agree with this situation. But the older sat back and watched the ice in front of the Villain melt. Her heel got caught in the heated mud and she fell forward, surprise on her face. Both of the brothers flinched back as they got splattered with mud and as Cascadea let out an horrible yell.
"Now you've done it!" she screamed, murderous eyes on Nick. He just stared down at her, no mercy in his eyes as the Four again flashed on his chest. While she was distracted, Joe managed to slide around her and cuff her - her powers now useless due to the heating element within the specially designed braces. "If you leave me here, I'll be trampled," she reminded the Hero angrily. He responded by tossing her over into an empty space of green, where she lay yelling about the traitorous actions of the Four.
"My turn," Technotron stepped forward, knuckles being cracked.
"Tag team?" A voice from nowhere came before the runner slowed to a stop.
The two Villains sized each other up before they both nodded.
"Just stay away from my sparks," Technotron - Tony - warned.
Miraged smirked. "I'll do my best. Nothing can slow me down."
But at his first step, the man slammed into something unseen. Joe looked to Nick, and Nick only smiled at their father before he nodded in thanks. Tony only laughed as Miraged mimicked a foul-mouthed mime in a box. "But I can stop you."
"Aiding the criminal?" the council elder shouted with an accusing finger.
"No!" Tom was quick to shout. He threw a look to his middle sons before he continued. "Rather I am stopping the Villains so we can get to the criminal first!"
The elder gave Tom a calculating look, not sure whether to believe the man or not. But he never got his next word out, for Neuropath had lit the man's dress-pants on fire from the sparks of his cell phone.
Tony laughed at the predicament of others before he faced the two again, a slight snarl on his face.
"You're not going to best me this time. Paragon isn't here to save your ass."
Joe shot Nick a confused look at this, but the Normal waved him off.
"But I'm not exactly powerless anymore, am I?"
Tony smirked, but his eyes flitted to Joe as the Hero moved to grip Nick's shoulder. "You trust him? Smart move, seeing as it got Necorphere and Florice real far."
Joe said nothing to the bait as he listened for the happy crackle of sparks. But nothing met his ear; nothing but the horrid sound of fists that met skin and screams as others were overtaken by their opponents power.
Nick's eyes narrowed as he gauged the fear in Tony's frame as he spoke with overly heavily sarcasm.
He is right to be afraid.
Nick blinked at the Bane's hostility, but didn't question it. After all, he had beaten Tony without either pendant before. The young man was probably petrified of what Nick could do to him now that he did have powers.
But it is not right to fight whom is unwilling to fight.
"Get out of here, Tony," Nick ordered as he pointed behind him and Joe. "No one will notice."
The Villain looked at the Normal incredulously. "W-what?"
"You heard me."
Tony gave him a suspicious look, but Nick spread his arms wide, the pendants dormant on his chest.
"Go."
The man hesitated a moment longer before he scrambled away. Joe kept his eyes on his retreating form, not even bothered to hold his confusion from his face. "Why..?"
"It wouldn't have been right to fight him when he didn't want to fight."
Joe stared at his brother, pride now the only thing in his eyes. "You really can control it, can't you?"
Nick shot Joe a smile. "You doubted me?"
Joe sheepishly rubbed his neck as he glanced over to the mass of bodies. "Not you..."
Nick only chuckled tiredly and waved his hand to quiet his brother. "No worries, Joe. I did too."
"Talis thinks you still should."
Both men stiffened and slowly turned at the call of the young girl. She smiled at them, her fingers stuck in a wave.
"Don't do this, Tails," Nick tried to keep his voice gentle, but the Villain just rolled her eyes.
"Talis will do what she wants to do. She does like the sweater, though, so she may spare the nice Normal."
She turned her gaze towards the hill in the distance and all the while the smile on her face never left. "Talis is calling you," she purred, "Death, you are my slave."
Nick's breath got caught in his throat when he heard the girl refer to herself in first person. He took a step away from her and knocked into Joe as the ground at her feet began to crack open.
"Oh my..." Joe breathed out, his words clearly heard by all of fighters, who stood frozen as they too watched.
Nick took another step back, unable to look away as the first emerged.
A hand slowly rose from the cracked ground, one preserved well enough to show that it's death had been recent. It's nails were caked with dirt, its skin flushed to the color of earth and blue from its passing. It's arm was thin, frail looking, and covered in what used to be their finest attire. The periwinkle blue dress was torn, the lace all but shredded, and stains that could never be removed. But it wasn't the dress, the scars from teeth that littered her exposed arms and stomach, nor the grime-caked hair plastered to the sunken face that had Nick take yet another step away. It was the fact that he knew this girl.
He had seen her die.
"I think it's time Nicky and Florice were reacquainted with a few people," Talis whispered cruelly. Her power filled her voice as she became what everyone feared: the reaper of death. Her mind was now one with those under her control. She channeled them, moved them; was their master.
"Erika was her name," Talis spoke as the girl effectively freed herself from the ground and stood unsteadily. Her dead eyes stared straight at the one who continued to retreat. "And she was consumed by one of Florice's cannibalistic flytraps."
If Tony had been here then Nick has no doubt that he would be on knees from the sight of his younger sister. Of the only Normal he had ever loved.
And more continued to come; the Normals climbed over each other as their master called for them to move faster. The scene was mesmerizing - the dead were walking again.
'Boy,' the Four snapped, which gained Nick's attention. The aggravation in its voice told the Normal of its many failed attempts to regain his attention. 'I cannot stop the ones that are already reanimated, but I can stop more from being so. Her power, it is darkness based. Or as you know it, shadow based.'
Nick blinked at this, his eyes now only on the ruby. And he nodded.
'It will not be pleasant.'
That was all the warning Nick received before the Four acted on its own will. The Normal took a shuddering breath as the power invaded his mind and manipulated his thoughts towards the cemetery on the hill. Fear raced through his veins; the Normals heart sped to match the speed at with Talis clapped, his hands shook as hatred that was not his own drowned him, and his eyes clenched closed, unwilling to let anyone see the demon that now lurked within his mind. And Nick wanted to fight it, wanted to curl up in a corner from the sheer weight of the burning oppression, but if he made one wrong move...
Even Nick didn't know what would happen.
So he was helpless; only able to feel the intensity of the dark power that made his skin crawl in the worst of ways. The Four made him see Talis's power as it stretched out across the yard of cemetery Nick should have been blind too. He felt the dark aura sink below the ground as it neared every headstone of the Normals whom Florice had so wrongly murdered. He shuddered when the fingers of the dead began to twitch.
But this wasn't what the Four warned him of - that much Nick was sure about.
And then he felt it - the fatal kiss of death as it tried to reclaim its victims. The brutal pull as it latched onto its corpuses and fought to keep them still, fought to keep Talis's life force from entering them. He felt the being start as it noticed his presence, the presence of life.
Nick wanted to run as soon as he felt the fingers grip his mind and as fog began to hinder his vision, even though his eyes were still closed. His fear kept his heart racing, but even that was slowing at an alarming rate as the chill began to seep within his bones.
Stay calm, young one.
But Nick found that order nearly impossible to achieve. Even when the Four reached out its own consciousness and connected itself to Death, even when the growth of the cold stopped, he couldn't calm down.
It is the feeling of a rabbit caught in a trap, when it hears the barks of its hunter.
The blood, Nick thought to himself as the Four's power began to surge through his mind and into the hands of Death, 'the blood that lures a shark.'
Nick slowly opened his eyes as a new feeling swept through him - true invincibility. The Four, which was still the only thing present in his mind, was connected with the one thing that no one could escape: Death. And he, Nicholas, was the master of what was connected with Death.
At this moment, Nick thought, nothing can stop me.
He looked passed the frozen corpses of the Normals, passed the looks of pure terror and pain, and right into the eyes of the one who thought she was better than Death. Of the one who though she could enslave it. She laughed as she clapped when another of her puppets clambered over and punched the chest of their living siblings. The young girl looked over to Nick, her innocence entirely gone; replaced, it was, with a look of the pure insanity of evil.
"Death is my slave," she whispered, for she felt Nick's attempt to stop her army's growth. And confidence ruled her voice as she fought off Death from the ones that stood around her.
She thinks of herself as your master, Nick whispered in thoughts to Death. He felt anger through the connection as the being pushed Talis's chains of animation away from the graveyard. He felt the darkness as Death channeled its power through the Four, and therefore, through Nick.
Nick, if he was in control of his own limbs, would have stumbled back and fallen to his knees as his vision left him completely. He would have cried out in shock with a dying voice as his heart lurched and froze. He would have cursed the Four.
He heard Talis's unearthly screams and the thuds as multiple bodies fell back into the earth. He felt the shadowed aura retreat as Death itself invaded the ones Talis thought she had control over. He felt grim satisfaction as the dead returned to their graves and were laid back down to rest.
And then it was gone.
Nick felt the world slam back into him and force him to his knees. His hands found the ground as he took a huge intake of breath while his heart sputtered. He blinked tears from his eyes as everything came back into view. And he groaned as the sudden onslaught of pain came and drilled back into his skull.
'Death can do what I cannot,' the Four mused as it watched Talis crawl away from the scene, unrestrained and not being followed. 'But the Heroes are right to let her walk free. They cannot contain her. If they tried too...I can't even fathom it.'
Are you alright, child?
Nick forced himself to push back from the ground so he sat in a crouch. He didn't answer the Bane - the simply couldn't. He had felt Death; how could he be alright after that?
'He'll be fine,' the Four said nonchalantly. 'I told him it wouldn't be pleasant.'
Nick heard the tired note in the spirits voice as he stood at a painstakingly slow rate. So even they, he pondered, can be worn down.
'After seventy years of not being in use..!' the Four began, but it died off when it realized that its master was ignoring its protest.
"W-was that you?"
Nick turned to his mother at the call, making use of the shocked crowd to gather his wits.
"Not really," Nick whispered back. "The Four could stop her from bringing more of them back, but it couldn't stop the ones she already animated." He tried to ignore how shaky and weak his voice sounded, but at the end of the sentence, he was unable to not flinch from it.
"Then who?" Tom asked hesitantly, as if afraid of the answer.
Nick closed his eyes.
Tell them.
'Do it.'
"Death."
The word hung in the air as everyone processed what had taken more energy than Nick had anticipated to say. The silence around them had Nick closing his eyes again so he wouldn't have to see the accusing stares of horror as they all realized how powerful Nick could really be.
"Death?"
Nick nodded at the skeptical tone. "Death reclaimed what it owned."
A scoff was heard, but it was the only scoff to be heard.
"What?" Loraine shouted to the ones gathered in silence. "You actually believe that Death was here? You're all idiots."
Lilith shook her head once and stared at the Normal until he opened his eyes and regarded her coolly. "Nothing other than Death has the power to stop that girl. Once she attacks, the only way to stop them is to trap them until they naturally decay, or burn them. I saw no fire or cages. All I saw were the bodies falling back into the earth and Talis retreating."
The Hero scoffed again and crossed her arms. "The Four has powers that none of us could imagine. If that was Death, which I doubt, then the Four had to have connected with it. The Four is a dark being. It needs to be taken care of."
"And how," Lilith smirked, "Did you come to take conclusion?"
Loraine rolled her eyes and pointed to Nick. "The Normal said it himself. The Four can stop Talis's power from growing, but can't when it's already done. Death fights Talis like wolves over a carcass. So if that actually was Death, then it couldn't have beaten Talis alone. It never did before. So, therefore, the Four aided it. Connected with Death. Anything with that kind of power shouldn't be allowed to survive."
Lilith only smiled. "You are a smart one," she laughed, "For a Hero. But did it ever occur to you that Nicholas did what he did to save us all from Talis? Surely that won't be ignored?"
The Council Elder, whose pants were thoroughly scorched, stepped forward. "His actions were questionable at best. Loraine is right. This was just another showing as to how the Four is a threat to our way of life! It must be destroyed!"
Nick was careful to keep his gasp of pain quiet as the Four growled at the word.
"Nicholas," the Elder addressed the distressed teen, "If you are on our side, you will destroy it! Now!"
But Nick just met the man's cold gaze with a glare of his own. "You've never been on my side, so why would I be on yours?"
"You just ended your life, child."
Nick smiled at this, his memory spouting an image of a certain Villain saying the same thing to him, just days before. "And yet I'm still standing." Nick faced his family, regret in his eyes. Joe trusted him and now he had to betray that trust. He had to - his plan called for it.
Everyone could only stare as Nick put his back to the Villains and faced the Heroes. They watched as Florice carefully walked over to his side and stared at his determined face. He spared her a glance, to which she flinched back at the power behind his eyes.
"Villains," Lilith called as she fearlessly put her hand on Nick's shoulder. "The Four is ours."
Joe started at the sight, betrayal heavy on his brow. "Nick...what?"
Nick looked over to him and showed none of his regret that bubbled just beneath his skin. "I've chosen my side, Joe. I suggest you do the same."
The Lucas family all looked towards the Council and the other Heroes before they looked back to the man that stood across from them. Joe shook his head at Nick's hidden invitation.
"I want you to be safe," Joe whispered, but his feet did not move, "But I am not Villain." He looked towards his family, all of whom were unable to look Nick in the eye. "None of us are. And we're sorry, Nick. We failed you."
Nick sighed once and nodded, as if agreeing with Joe's statement. But he shrugged, as if indifferent to their decision.
If there is still one last chance to turn back; it would be now.
Nick ignored the Bane and forced himself to stand tall.
"I don't believe him," a slow voice called out and scratched the air with sandpaper. The Villains parted, all with averted eyes. The figure approached, its back hunched and left foot dragged against the dusted ground. Something dripped from its opened lips, which revealed several cracked teeth. And the smell was worse than the stench Talis's puppets had left behind - something that made Nick force himself to remain standing tall and not to gag with his hand over his nose.
"Necrophere," the man whispered, its beady eyes only on the Four, "Was very clear with his orders to me." The man flicked his greasy hair form his face with a gnarled finger. "Send the greatest fears to everyone with a Hero's intent," he glanced once to Nick's face before he resumed his stare. "But he promised that if I did, I would be next in line of the Four."
Nick took a step back as the man reached out for the Four.
"Goodnight Heroes," he laughed lowly as blackness began to creep into Nick's vision for the umpteenth time tonight, "Enjoy your nightmares."
He stood on top of the carnage he had created, his foot on the chest of his own mother. He stared into her fearful eyes without mercy as the Four egged him to do what he knew he shouldn't want to do. Her mouth moved to beg, but he heard none of her words nor did he see the look of love on her face when she tried to reason with him. He only saw what the Four wanted him to see: red.
He opened his eyes, violently shaken as he stared at the dusted ground. He could only vaguely register the strain from the Four as it telepathically pushed Phantom away as his nails scraped Nick's neck. But the shock from the push was enough for the Villain's images to be broken.
Nick looked down to the ruby for he knew it had seen what he had, but it said nothing to him.
"Nicholas."
Nick went to turn at the call before he stopped himself. That hadn't been voiced.
Mom? he dared think as he watched the Villain pick himself up from the ground with a hiss. Can you stop him?
He met his mother's eyes and she nodded. "Be careful," she warned him as if she knew what he planned to do, "We still trust you to do what is right."
Nick nodded. He heard Phantom grunt in concentration as both Sandy and Kevin Lucas invaded the Villain's mind. One spoke harshly to him and told him of his own nightmares, while the other made it impossible for the man to issue another sneak attack.
But while Kevin's attention was elsewhere, he felt himself begin yanked to the ground. His the back of his head scraped the earth painfully, but he did not let himself be distracted.
"So," the Great Tac taunted as he made the metal in the Heroes belt buckles attract to the particles Florice had unearthed in her first attack, "How useless is magnetism now?" No less than six Heroes struggled to stand; no less than six Heroes were now confined to the ground.
Nick only watched, too shaken to be much help at the moment. He knew what he wanted. And he knew that if he achieved it, he would be one step away from his greatest fear. Nick stared at the scene, his humanity all to present when he began to have second thoughts.
Florice, who had never once looked away from Nick's face, smirked when she saw his doubt. She knelt, unnoticed by anyone, and caressed the leaves of a trampled weed. But Nick dropped his gaze and stared at the girl, his eyes pleading with her.
She smiled once to the young man and nodded. "Beauty is deadly," she reminded him softly before she turned her attention back to the waning life of the weed.
She was right - the beauty of his plan, it was deadly. But if he backed down, the consequences were something he never wanted to face. He had to keep going. There was no turning back.
Joe, who heard this and misinterpreted Florice's meaning, launched himself at the girl. She just smiled as roots shot up and intercepted him. She pinned him to the ground, not having the energy to do more than watch him struggle in valiant failure.
Nick looked at Joe and let him see the fear in his eyes from Phantom's nightmare.
"I don't want anything bad to happen," Nick whispered to him, not caring for the girl at his feet. "I have to do this to stop it."
Joe shook his head once. "I trust you, Nick. But you can drop the Four and stop this."
It was Nick's turn to shake his head. "I'd still be locked up. I am a Villain, Joe. I carry the Four. Even if I let it go, nothing will change. I have to do this."
Joe held his brother's gaze for a second longer. "Okay. Prove them wrong. Show them a Normal can be great."
Nick smiled small at this before he nodded. He said no more as he faced the remaining members of the Council, quite aware that the other Villains were either too occupied or tired to help. And those who weren't, like Lilith, just sat on the sidelines and watched. She knew , she somehow brilliantly knew, what Nick planned on doing.
"This has gone on long enough, Normal," the Elder spat out as he stepped over Loraine, who still struggled to stand as her belt was seemingly glued to the ground. "It's time we destroyed you."
Nick's eyes narrowed at the word as the Four flashed angrily. "I'd like to see you try," Nick sneered, the Four's voice echoing his own.
'It's time for those imbeciles to learn.'
Time for the cowards to fight.
Time, Nick added, for them to realize just what we are capable of.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with," the Elder laughed as Nick clenched his fists and glared at the older man. "I won't play around anymore. It's time you came with us."
Nick just rolled his eyes.
"I'm afraid that you have no choice." The Elder stepped forward, the look of fight in his eyes. "After all, how can you fight us when you have no power to use?"
Realization slammed into Nick as the Four, which would have been thoroughly insulted by this comment, remained silent.
"Now you see, don't you?" The Elder laughed at the Normal's shock. "You didn't think we were able to capture and hold all of the Villains we do because of luck, did you?"
Nick threw a look over to his father, but instantly was met with distracted eyes. Tom Lucas wanted nothing more than to help his son and stop the Elder's power from getting to him, but he couldn't. He was strained enough: he contained Neuropath's items, held Miraged, stopped Valenteen from influencing the male Heroes, and stopped Florice from squeezing his middle son to death.
Nick instantly began to berate himself for not factoring in this kind of improbability. How could he have looked this over? How would he let himself be ignorant to this kind of power? To the Elder's ability to completely negate any sort of power coming from the human mind? The Elder, in all probability, was able to cut off Nick's link between both pendants. And the feat, though probably impossible when the Four was at its highest of power, could be done after all of tonight's strain. Nick wanted to smack himself for letting this slide by him.
You couldn't have known.
The Normal nearly leapt out of his skin in surprise. He could still communicate with them? The link was still there? So why couldn't he use them?
He can't stop us completely. We can still do a little through you, but not what you needed. We can, however, work on our own terms. But this is not the right moment.
Nick let the Bane feel his aggravation before he sighed in acceptance. He still had another plan, and thanks to the Bane's previous words, a new idea that could keep the Four away from the Heroes.
'One I don't agree with,' the Four hissed. 'It's the original or nothing at all.'
Nick stared at the ruby as the Heroes began to circle him. How in the world, he thought, can we still do the original plan? It was supposed to be done here and now! Not when I'm locked away in some sort of power-negating prison!
The Four only laughed. 'Again you fail to factor in another variable.'
Nick looked over to the Villains who hungrily eyed the Four, but he realized they wouldn't help aid his escape. But his family...no. He can't lead them into something that dangerous, no matter how tempting it was to see this through.
So the Normal shook his head and let the Heroes close in. No, he thought to the Four, The original plan can't be done. It's over.
'It can't be. There has to be something more.'
Nick ignored this and chose to simply look over at his family, his mind set. Don't do anything foolish, he thought, knowing his mother would pick up on those words, or at least the hardened look to his eyes. The younger Lucas glanced towards Joe, a new message on his face: don't put yourselves at risk.
Joe pushed as hard as he could, but the weight was just too much. He glared at Florice, but she just waved at him with a strained smile. But at Nick's look, his struggles died and shock replaced his anger. Kevin let out an exasperated yell as Tac kept his back, more specifically his turned-backward belt buckle, to the iron deposit under him. Sandy was forced to her knees by the terrifying day-mares Phantom was putting her through. And Tom Lucas tried as hard as he could to put some protection around the hoards target, but Nick was left unprotected; Tom Lucas wasn't strong enough to protect him too.
Tom looked towards Nick and met his rather proud gaze. Tom shook his head, wanting to take down some of his force fields and help, but he knew Nick would never forgive him if others got hurt. So he relented and nodded to his son, a promise in his eyes: we will make sure you're free again.
Nick nodded once before a set of arms wrapped themselves around his neck.
"You struggle, we lock up your family too," the Elder told him in a low voice that told him that this order was not to be tested.
So Nick fell limp, nothing but acceptance on his face. He knew he had failed. He knew that if he hadn't stayed to help Joe, then everything would be going according to his plan. He knew that things could have gone his way, if he hadn't been so consumed with the need to see his plan through.
But he also saw this outcome; he knew that he could be locked away. He had prepared for the worst. And he wasn't about to let the worst happen.
His gaze flicked down to the Four and he closed his eyes and thought: you mustn't fall into their hands.
'Believe me, brat,' the Four's voice was fragile, 'I never intended to. Such filth shall never touch me. Next time they face me, I won't be so weak.'
A hand touched Nick's neck. His eyes flew open at the heat which raced through the black chain and reddened the Hero's fingers. The unseen flinched back as the Guardian pulled itself from its prison.
'FILTH!' it screamed, causing everyone to duck their heads in pain as a spike was driven into their heads, but Nick was the only one to cry out in pain, hands clutched at his temples. 'I SHALL NOT BE IN THE HANDS OF HEROES!'
Your hurting the boy, the Bane calmly told the Four. The spirit kept her four voices steady, for she felt the fear that shivered underneath her master's skin and hateful dread that came with only the strongest regret.
The Four grumbled to itself, but it lowered its voice and pulled away from its master as well. 'You shall not take me," it warned as the Heroes closed in once again. It hissed as fingers neared the chain again. It lashed out and knocked the Hero away when their fingers did touch the black metal. 'If you wish to take me, then I wish to take something of my own before I take my leave. Something...more.'
What are you...? both the Bane and Nick asked. Their question was cut off when the Heroes dropped Nick and dove towards the snake pendant at his chest. The Guardian only smirked at their antics before another glow of red pulsed through the entire smoke-being. The last thing anyone heard of the Four was loud rumbling laughter.
'Until we meet again, child.'
The words shattered all of Nick's mental barriers, letting in the fire that consumed the black pendant. He thought he screamed as the fire bashed into his conscience and left nothing but ash for him to fall into as the silence of unconsciousness began to ring.
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Chibiyu: So...what do you think the Four has in mind? Until Next Update!
Written 8/12/12
