Chapter 24: The Challenge of the Heart Part 2
Characters (in order of first appearance):
Kin Tsuchi / Oro Terra
Zaku Abumi / Zach Staffa
Ino Yamanaka / Maiale Montagna
Shikamaru Nara / Capriolo Marche
Chōji Akimichi / Palermo Cammino
Soon after Typhonragazzo left, the fire died down enough to where Rosa could safely crawl down into the bottom of the pipe and drag Tony out of it before the water level rose till it was level with the walkway. The crocs had decided to surface onto the walkways, but far enough to where they weren't in immediate danger. She lowered her gun and sat against the concrete wall behind her, contemplating the situation.
What am I going to do? Both boys are out cold, and I can't carry them! Though the crocs are far away, they might change their minds once they smell us, and there's no point in crying for help since everyone's out to steal each other's scrolls…damn, we were so close to getting an Air Scroll, and we blew it! If only Capo Spauracchio were here.
But her thoughts were interrupted when she heard footsteps. She stood up and pointed her gun towards the sounds, as they were coming from behind a bend in the walkway up ahead. It was a group of children between twelve to thirteen years old, about Rosa's age, consisting of two boys, one completely covered in bandages wearing a gray suit while the other had spiky black hair, and the girl had long dark brown hair tied in a purple ribbon. They all wore ties that were purple with a sound-note stitched on the front.
"Where's Tony?" the boy in the bandages asked.
Rosa hesitated to answer. "What business do you have with him?"
"We're Squad Seta from the Suono family. I'm Zach Staffa, the girl is Oro Terra, and the one in the bandages is our leader, Ecc Seta, and we were sent by Father Typhonragazzo to fight him," the boy with the spiky hair said, rubbing the side of his bandaged knuckle against his tan-colored suit.
Remembering Ecc Seta from one of the many mobsters Casco said to avoid, Rosa was deeply frightened, but tried to look calm in front of Squad Seta. "Tony's in no condition to fight, after being bitten and all that."
"Bitten?" asked Oro. "Is there a downward pentagram near the bite-marks?"
Rosa glanced at Tony, and saw the mark Oro was talking about. "Yeah, didn't Typhonragazzo tell you guys he was going to give Tony the Vampire's Curse?"
"He told us nothing of giving anyone a Vampire's Curse! All he said was to find Tony and fight him!" Zach snapped.
Oro was biting her thumb. "What is that creep up to?"
"Don't question such things, Oro, especially in front of our enemies!" Ecc said, pulling roughly on her hair.
"Okay, okay, I hear you!" Oro cried, and sighed as Ecc let her go.
"Then I guess we'll have to wait until Tony regains consciousness," Zach said, taking out his knife.
"But in the meantime, let's mess with her," Oro replied, cracking her knuckles.
"You may do what you like, but don't hurt Tony," Ecc said, and stood back as Oro and Zach charged at Rosa.
She fired a few rounds, but they missed, and just as they were about to make contact, a flash of green suddenly dropped from above. The two Suono Soldiers stopped, and Rosa's eyes widened to see Beni Niro standing right in front of her. He glared at the two Soldiers and then he winked back at Rosa.
"So did you miss me, angel?" he asked.
"I told you to stop calling me angel!" Rosa snapped. "And how the hell did you know where to find me?"
"Me and the rest of Squad Face were coming from up ahead, when I noticed the flames. I decided to check it out by crawling along the electrical line above to avoid detection in case there was trouble, and it looks like I was right!"
"Enough with the chit-chat, green-bean! You interrupted our fun!" Zach said, raising his hands.
"If I defeat these guys, will you be my girlfriend?" Beni Niro said, turning back to face Zach, and then he leaped into the air and cried, "Blood-Pressure Drop!"
He landed on Zach with a loud crash that cracked the walkway underneath, and sent Beni and Zach floating into the current. But Zach recovered and raised his hands under water, shouting "Winds of Aeolus* (Decapitating Air Waves)!"
This sent blasts of air through the water, causing the water to rise and become waves, drowning Beni underneath as a result. But he touched the bottom, saying "Adrenaline Sprint!" and leaped out of the water like a dolphin and hit the top of the tunnel hard with his head. As he fell, Ecc jumped up to meet him with a fist that was vibrating with sound waves and punched Beni in the ear while saying, "Siren Echo (Resonating Echo Drill)!"
Not only did this send Beni flying through the air, but it also made him cry out in pain as his ears were bleeding. But before he landed in the water, Rosa dashed out and caught him, landing on the other side. As she lay him down, she noticed Zach swimming back onto the other walkway and Ecc had decided to jump back there as well as they advanced on the unconscious Gelato and Tony. Worried for their safety, she was about to make another leap, but someone appeared behind her and grabbed her hair.
"Your hair feels nice and soft," Oro said, standing over Rosa in her silken black dress. "It's just a shame that someone as pretty as you can't even protect those she cares about."
Rosa was shocked, and felt completely numb as Oro forced her to stand up and face the wall while Oro searched her for the scroll. Then while Oro wasn't looking, Rosa reached into her gun holster, and pulled out a hidden flip-knife. She raised it slowly till it was next to her head, and flicked it open.
"What are you going to do?" Oro asked mockingly.
"This," Rosa said, and swung the knife behind her head, cutting away the hair that Oro's hand was attached to, which made Oro loose balance and fall into the water. The green scarf Rosa wore immediately fell off, but she paid no attention to it as she leaped across the water and punched Zach and Ecc as she landed between them.
They staggered, and fell into the water as well. Then Rosa took Gelato and Tony by the arms and forced them into the water with her. Zach noticed and sent another Aeolus Wind towards them, which caused the water to rise and flow upstream against the current, with Rosa and her comrades riding on the waves that were produced. Ecc realized Zach's mistake and punched him on the side of his face, but before they could get out, Beni Niro staggered up, grabbed Rosa's scarf before it floated away, and bounded after the three, though his speed was incredibly slowed down due to disorientation. At the other end of the pipe was a fountain of water coming out of another pipe, and around it were an intricate series of ladders and gangways that went into two man-made tunnels. There, Rosa saw Cielo and the other boy she saw at the apartment, Voluta, as they jumped down from the ladders and helped her and the other boys out.
"Where's Beni Niro?" Cielo asked.
"Oh, no, I left him back there by accident when I was rescuing the boys!"
"Rosa!" a voice cried out from down the pipe.
"Beni!" Cielo cried, watching as Beni came around the bend.
He jumped over to where Rosa and the boys were, and handed back her scarf.
"Rosa, you forgot…your scarf," he said, and collapsed on the concrete walkway face-first.
For the first time, Rosa looked down at Beni Niro, and pitied him. But then noises from down the pipe caught her attention: it sounded like there was a fight going on, mixed with male and female screams, one of which she recognized. It irritated her, but regardless, she stood up and was about to run towards the battle when she looked back at Tony and Gelato, who were still out cold.
"It's okay, Rosa, we'll take care of them," Cielo said. "Now go and be a woman!"
Rosa nodded in approval, and took off.
When she got there, her suspicions were confirmed. Squad Seta had recovered and was trying to head up the pipe to get to her, but two boys and a girl she remembered from the classroom in the old school blocked their path. One of the boys had short black hair tied in a straight ponytail, with silver earrings in his ears, wearing a black T-shirt, matching pants and shoes, wearing the signature green tie of the Foglia family. The other boy was incredibly chubby, with red swirls on his cheeks and unruly short brown hair sticking out underneath a green bandana with the Foglia crest on it. He wore a green coat over a plain white T-shirt, and brown pants with matching shoes.
The girl was the same one who blocked Rosa from entering the classroom. She wore the same purple dress, white gloves, and black heels she had before, with the green gun holster tied around her thigh. Her bright blond hair was still tied in a ponytail, but her bright blue eyes were closed, as she was lying unconscious on the walkway. Then Rosa noticed that the girl who attacked her, Oro, was holding a knife to her throat and seemed to be in a trance.
"Surrender now, or this girl dies." Oro said in a monotone voice.
"Mind control! Zach, attack Oro!" Ecc shouted, but he couldn't move as he was paralyzed by a shadow that extended all the way to the boy with the short black hair as he was making the sign of the Crab (Rat) with his hands.
Zach hesitated, while standing in front of the chubby boy, who had a pissed off look on his face. "But Ecc, Oro will get hurt!"
"Do as I say!"
"Fine!" Zach replied, and aimed his hands at Oro, shouting, "Winds of Aeolus!"
This made Oro hit her head against the wall behind her and collapse onto the floor of the walkway. Just then, the shadow that was immobilizing Ecc had retreated, which made the boy with the short black hair stagger slightly. But before Ecc could attack, a flash of purple fire appeared and stood next to Rosa. She gasped when she recognized it was Tony, but apart from being enclosed by purple fire, he was covered in black marks shaped like flames that ran all the way down his left arm and across the side of his face, and he had the Specchio Occhi eyes on, which made him look scarier than he already was.
"Tony...you're all right," Rosa said, trying to touch him.
But he turned to face her, which made her cringe, because he had the look of an insane person who had been waiting to kill someone all day. Then he said in an unusually throaty voice, "Who hurt you?"
"I did!" Zach shouted, after he sent the Winds of Aeolus at the chubby boy, who only expanded further, but ended up rolling over into the water due to the force of the air blasts.
"That's a lie!" Rosa shouted, but Tony didn't hear her and was already standing behind Zach, with his hand twisted behind him.
"We tried to stop him," Cielo said, running right up to Rosa, with Voluta behind her. "But he wouldn't listen."
"It's almost like he's possessed or something," Voluta said.
The Vampire's Curse! It's altered his mind into that of a bloodthirsty killer! Rosa realized.
While Ecc watched as his comrade tried to struggle against Tony's grip, the boy with the dark-haired ponytail balanced himself against the wall and shouted at Oro. "Maiale, get out of that girl's body now! If you stay in there longer, you'll be in danger!"
Oro nodded, and then a blue phantom emerged from Oro's body, and flew back into the girl with the purple dress, who groaned as she awoke. She first noticed Rosa and the other two Soldiers standing behind, and then she looked up at Tony. Despite being glad to see him, she was afraid at the same time.
"Hey, Tony, what happened to you?" Maiale asked, slowly standing up. "Your aura feels…different."
"You dumb broad! Can't you see I'm about to get killed?!" Zach snapped, but then he felt Tony twist his arm behind him, and silently flinched.
"Maybe if I break your arm, it'll shut you up!" Tony said, and twisted Zach's arm far enough back to where a loud snap could be heard.
Zach cried out in pain, and fell to his knees. He picked up his limp arm, and held back the tears as the pain spread. As for Tony, he just stood over Zach and watched, with a malevolent grin on his face. Nobody said anything, as Tony circled Zach and spoke to him.
"You don't feel so powerful now, do you? That's exactly how I felt as a child, when I came home to find every single member of my clan dead, except…for my brother. He just stood there, with blood all over his hands, looking down at me with pity. He should've killed me, but he didn't. It was then that I came to one simple truth: the only way for me to avenge those who died…was to gain power, and now that I've tasted it, I realize all those years of training wasn't enough. In order to make my revenge absolute, I must use whatever means necessary to obtain that power which I seek, even if I lose myself in the process."
"Oh, come on, I didn't need to hear your goddamn life-story, you psycho!" Zach groaned, and attacked Tony by head-butting him in the chest. But Tony smiled and kicked him in the chest. This sent him flying and landed hard on the concrete floor.
"That's what you get for being noisy," Tony growled, then his attention was drawn to Ecc, who was lying flat against the wall on the other walkway in sheer terror.
"No, Tony, stop!" Rosa said, grabbing him around the waist from behind, which surprised him. "It's true that they hurt us, but that doesn't give you the right to kill them!"
"Rosa's right," Maiale said, and stood in front of Tony with her hands touching the sides of Tony's cheeks. "They're just kids our age, for God's sake."
"Hey, back off! Tony's apart of my Squad!" Rosa cried, hugging Tony tighter.
"Your Squad? Apart from Tony, the only member I see is you. Where's that damn idiot who made fun of Tony when we were being assigned?"
"His name's Gelato, and he's out cold at the moment."
"So he has a name? How fitting that it should be just as stupid as his demeanor. Maybe you should tag along with him, since you guys seem to share the same IQ, and leave Tony with me."
"Don't I get a say in this meaningless love quarrel?" the boy with the short black hair asked, drawing both girls' attentions. "And in case you haven't noticed, the Suono guy is still here!"
"Shut up, Capriolo, this has nothing to do with you!" Maiale replied. "And why don't you make yourself useful by getting Palermo back before he floats too far down the pipe?"
The boy, Capriolo, groaned, and ran down the walkway to go after the rolling chubby boy, who was crying for help and making gurgling noises from dipping his head into the water several times. Meanwhile, the flame-marks on Tony's arm retreated as well as the purple fires, and he collapsed in Rosa and Maiale's arms. But when Maiale noticed Ecc jumping over to their walkway, she pulled out her gun and pointed it directly at Ecc's forehead.
"If you lay one hand on Tony, I'll blow your brains out!" she said harshly.
"I wouldn't lay a hand on Tony even if you paid me," Ecc said, picking up Zach and hurled him over his shoulder as Zach moaned. "He's too strong for me to handle alone."
Then he took out a scroll from his coat pocket and tossed it at Rosa, who caught it with her free hand. It was an Air Scroll. But before she could say anything, Ecc jumped back to the other walkway, and picked up Oro. Then he kicked part of the wall, which opened a secret door in front of him, and he said, "So, me and the rest of my Squad will retreat for the time being, but if we crossed paths again in these games, I won't hesitate to slaughter any of you!"
He walked through the door, gave them one final stare, and kicked the door in front of him, closing it shut once more. Capriolo and Palermo were running up the walkway when they noticed Ecc closing the door and tried to budge it open, but it wouldn't move. So with nothing else to do, all three Squads walked up the pipe back to where Gelato and Beni Niro were, with Cielo leading the way and Voluta keeping a curious eye on Tony, as Rosa and Maiale carried him despite his moaning objections.
*Aeolus was the Greek god of the winds, and Neptune's brother
End of Chapter 24