Ch. 71: She who would become Queen (P2)
A.N.:
Hey everyone!
Sadly, I did not have enough time to finish up the second chapter to post today like I said I would try to do.
I just got caught up in the new job and getting ready for the new semester.
The new job is going alright so far but I already got injured a bit when a 200+ lbs oven fell off the top of a double stack of boxes that I was unloading off the delivery truck, struck me in the face, knocked me to the floor, and then landed on top of me.
Luckily, it landed on my shoulder instead of my head so I am still good to go. Lol it takes more than an oven landing on top of me to put me out of commission.
Anyway,
Here it is: the final battle/action chapter for this story! Huzzah!
I hope it was worth the wait. I tried my best to make it worth it.
Don't worry by the way, all is not lost just yet!
I should still have time to work on finishing up this story before college really kicks up.
So...despite not having it ready for today, I hope to be able to get it up either by the end of the month or the middle of next month.
My plan is to have the next chapter basically be an epilogue that deals with loose ends and sets up the story for the sequel. The chapter after that is just a final lemon chapter to close out the story.
I could just keep going with this story after that but I figured that it would be better to finish this one out and just make a sequel to allow me to take these characters and story in the direction that I want to from here. Realistically, I could have broken this one up into two or even three stories from all the plot twists and directions that it has gone in but I guess I just wanted to keep it going as a single story.
Sorry to keep rambling...
I really do hope that you all enjoy the beat down that Alma and Becket give the Doctor!
It feels kinda weird to be posting the final action story of this story after how long it has been in-progress.
Hope it is entertaining at least!
Read and review if you want!
As we charged the Beaked Doctor, the weakened god-like entity dug deep one last time as a thick green aura surrounded his cloaked form in what was either a clear act of defiance or at least an act of nonacceptance of his now seemingly inevitable fate.
However, as the god-like entity began to raise his cane in an attempt to defend himself, several molten hot strands of rusted barbwire erupted out of the ground beneath his feet. Before he could react, the strands of wire wrapped around his outstretched arm. The Beaked Doctor let out an agonized scream as the molten lengths of barbwire then audibly sawed the limb into several pieces by rapidly tightening and circling around it. The loss of control over the limb combined with the immense pain that was clearly racking the masked psionic caused him to drop his cane. The worn, black tool of his trade loudly clattered as it fell onto the cracked, charred asphalt surface of the street beneath our feet.
The Doctor continued to let out an agonized, muffled cry as he stumbled back a few steps while the now separated remains of his arm began to evaporate into clouds of ash where they were being held up in mid-air by the strands of glowing barbwire. The extent of how exhausted the once near infinitely powerful being had become became even more apparent as he was unable to quickly regenerate his severed arm. Meanwhile, Alma had quickly picked up his cane and then held it up in front of her.
Our adversary had just enough time when he finally turned back to face us to see the raven-haired demoness smile cruelly at him before she dissolved his cane before his hidden eyes. My wife's already terrifyingly dark aura darkened even more as she cannibalized the psionic energy that composed the doctor's tool. Though the beaked mask obscured his face, I could have almost sworn that I could have felt a wave of fear enter the god-like entity's "face" as he realized that the demoness before him had not made her earlier declaration that she was going to consume him in order to take his power for her own in jest but actually truly intended to follow through with her threat.
The realization of the nature of his approaching demise seemed to re-galvanize the Beaked Doctor's defiance as he forced a surge of reserve power to materialize a replacement arm while a slightly brighter green aura appeared around his cloaked frame. However, the psionic being was now clearly down to his bare energy reserves as his trademark green aura was now flickering almost constantly.
As he let out a loud, furious growl, the Doctor willed an energy blast in Alma's direction. Naturally, the unimaginably powerful, veteran psionic easily dodged the attack as she teleported to the left of the shockwave a good half of a second before it could reach her. Despite our adversary's condition, the force of the blast was still powerful enough to gouge out the street with a trench-like scar approximately the size of a large bathtub where my wife had been standing just moments prior.
As the red dress-clad demoness moved to stand in front of The Doctor once again in preparation to launch a counter assault, the beaked psionic barked curtly, "You fucking bitch! Who do you think you are?!"
The Beaked Doctor started to will another blast from his regenerated arm but I distracted him with a short, controlled burst of fifteen rounds from my Patten Assault Rifle into his masked face. I tried to press my assault and take advantage of the opening while my adversary raised his gloved left hand up to feel the multiple holes in his head by manifesting several strands of molten barbwire out of the ground beneath the cloaked figure's feet. However, this time, as the glowing rusted lengths of metal wire snaked up into the air around the god-like entity, he simply grabbed a hold of the four lengths of wire with his gloved right hand.
The Plague Doctor's victory was short-lived however, as, moments later, a thick charred tree root as big around as an average house's main sewage drain pipe wrapped around his upper torso and neck as if it was a botanical python. Meanwhile, the seemingly restrained lengths of barbwire escaped the cloaked being's grasp and then joined the tree root in wrapping around his frame.
Before our trapped adversary could try to break free, the world around me slowed to a crawl as I activated my surgically enhanced reflexes while I simultaneously began to open fire with my 7.8mm Assault Rifle into his middle torso. First, I emptied the remaining fifteen rounds of my current clip and then proceeded to reload. With my experience, I had reached the point of being able to maintain my state of heightened reflexes and supernaturally fast physical speed for far longer than I had once been restricted to. Unfortunately, in this case, it did not matter as much because I was only able to reload and dump three entire clips before, to my annoyance, I realized that I had completely burned through my ammunition reserves for my rifle.
In truth, I could have just manifested additional 7.8mm clips. However, I decided against it as I deactivated my reflexes and instead moved forward with my rifle's razor-sharp bayonet at the ready. Before the beaked doctor could even realize what was happening, I quickly moved into position in front of him and then began to thrust my rifle's bayonet into his bullet-riddled torso. The restrained god-like being was all but powerless to stop me as I repeatedly thrust the forged steel blade into his now ravaged frame. However, I was only able to get five rapid strikes in before the beaked entity willed his torn, manifested body to grip around the blade.
With my rifle now effectively stuck, I was forced to abandon it and take a step back. I had no sooner taken the step back before I saw my favored, war-torn weapon evaporate in a cloud of ash before my eyes as the cloaked figure destroyed my weapon. Enraged at losing my favorite rifle, I moved forward with my body enveloped by a hellish red aura and then reached out to grip the beak of The Plague Doctor's mask with my combat glove-encased left hand. Meanwhile, I reached down and gripped my Stainless Steel Super Redhawk .44 Magnum where it was in its holster along my right leg with my gloved right hand in preparation for what I was about to do.
Before my foe could react to what I was doing, I forcibly ripped his still bullet-riddled mask clean off his "face". While I held his protective mask back behind me, I raised my magnum up before I then emptied every cylinder pointblank into the smooth, black, featureless humanoid shape that was the now beak-less doctor's face beneath his mask. The brutal power of my sidearm was on full display as the barrage all but completely obliterated the god-like being's "head".
I tossed the mask to my wife, who then proceeded to "eat" our adversary's "face" by cannibalizing the energy contained within it while she gave him the same cruel smile that she had given him when she had consumed his cane. However, before I could continue my assault, the Faceless Doctor raised his right arm. Fortunately, I was able to use my enhanced reflexes to move to the right just in time to dodge a massive burst of psionic energy. Unfortunately, however, in my haste to dodge the blast, I lost my footing due to the uneven, cracked surface of the asphalt beneath my feet.
After I stumbled a few steps off to the right in the direction of some of the nearby burnt-out buildings, I was able to regain my footing. However, as I turned back to face in the direction of my adversary, I saw him now standing before me with his gloved right hand raised towards me in preparation to send another powerful psionic blast towards me. I only had just enough time to cross my arms out in front of me to will a protective wall of glowing red psychic energy into existence before I was struck by the full impact of the Faceless Doctor's psionic blast.
Despite our adversary's badly weakened state, the raw power of his psychic assault was still enough to have easily vaporized a normal human being. The lack of time for me to properly prepare was on full display as the psionic blast overpowered my psychic shield and sent me flying back through the air into a nearby building. A small cry of pain escaped from beneath my war-worn, black, skull ski mask while a hot stabbing shot of pain erupted through my back upon my impact with the reinforced concrete wall of the mostly destroyed multistory building. The raw force of the impact had been strong enough to cause my body to partially cave in the wall but, by seemingly pure dumb luck, the structure remained standing and did not collapse down on top of me.
Due to the nature of the damage inflicted upon me, my body armor was of little to no use and my HUD alerted me as it showed that my overall health rating, which was indicated by a colored bar down in the bottom left corner directly below the bar that gave an indication of the overall condition of my body armor, had been reduced from a full bar down to approximately the fifty percent mark. However, my HUD did not indicate that I had suffered any incapacitating injuries and I still had three Medkits.
As I pulled myself free from the wall, I saw that the Faceless Doctor was moving towards me with a partially healed head. The pain that was racking my body, as well as the loss of my Patten Assault Rifle, was clearly worth it, however, as the fact that our adversary was not even trying to fully heal the damage that I had inflicted upon his humanoid frame was proof that we had worn him down to the point of only being able to partially regenerate his physical form. The thought of the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was enough motivation to allow me to push through the stabbing pain in my back.
As I used my speed reloader on my .44 Magnum, I saw Alma quietly moving up behind the god-like entity in her bloodied child form. I could see the jet-black psionic energy pulsing behind my wife as she was charging up for one final attack to finally bring the faceless being to his knees and allow us to put an end to his efforts to wipe out all of humanity once and for all. I just had to buy my beloved partner a little more time to finish her setup. I steeled myself and then forced my body onward.
By the time that I had reloaded my sidearm, my cloaked adversary had closed to within five yards of me. The Faceless Doctor raised his right hand to begin to will another powerful psionic blast towards me. However, I halted the bullet-hole-riddled individual's attack before it could even happen by raising my stainless steel Redhawk up a the ready and then firing directly into his raised, gloved hand. My battle-honed aim with my father's former prized revolver was on display as the hand cannon hit home directly in the center of his palm. The power of the magnum was more than enough to all but completely obliterate the Doctor's gloved hand in a cloud of black chunks and mist.
The god-like entity let out a cry of shock and fury as he stumbled backwards a few steps while he clutched the wrist of the stumped remains of his right hand with his remaining one. After clutching his stump of a hand for a few moments, the Faceless Doctor stood back up and then reached out towards me with his remaining left hand. However, my adversary was stopped dead in his tracks when Alma manifested several tree root-like tentacles into existence and willed them to wrap around his raised left arm with enough force to restrain the limb by pulling it back in the air over his left shoulder.
Before the cloaked being could react to being restrained, I took aim with my magnum and then fired two rounds into his already bullet riddled chest. The thunderous report of my hand cannon had not even finished echoing through the glowing orange hellscape around us before I walked forward and then punched the god-like entity straight in the center of his smooth humanoid head with enough force to have easily knocked a normal human being unconscious as I was using psionic energy to boost the impact of my armored gloved fist.
As the Faceless Doctor recoiled back from the blow, I followed up with a punch to the center of his chest. As my fist made contact with my adversary's torso, I willed several lengths of molten hot, rusted barbwire forward into his body from the point of impact. The powerful psionic let out a twisted cry of agony as the lengths of barbwire erupted out of his back a few feet before finally stopping and forming into a shape that vaguely resembled a macabre pair of rusted wings. Still unsatisfied with the amount of agony that our adversary was in, I roughly threw him onto the cracked asphalt surface of the street beneath us and then stood over him.
Images of a sickly Akira weakly reaching out to me for help back when I had finally reached her when she had been on the verge of death filled my mind's eye as a deep reserve of maddening rage filled my entire being while I looked down at the source of the torment that my beloved daughter had endured before we had been able to save her. With my entire body enveloped by a crimson red aura while unquenched fury rolled through me, I raised my right leg up as high it would go and then I began to repeatedly stomp down onto the Faceless Doctor's partially regenerated head with the bottom of my combat boot.
As I continued to stomp down onto the center of the target of my aggression's increasingly misshapen head, I yelled, "Was it all worth it asshole? Huh?!"
After a moment, I finished with, "This is what you get for hurting my little girl!"
I ignored the squirts of black ooze that erupted out of the Doctor's head up onto my legs and lower body and did not stop until the only thing that remained was a pile of sludge on the ground above the stump of his neck. Of course, due to the nature of his existence, such a grisly injury was far from fatal for the now Headless Doctor. Stomping the god-like entity's head into a pile of sludge was purely for my own satisfaction. For no more reason other than it felt good to answer the demands of the rage roaring inside of me, I then emptied the remaining rounds of my .44 Magnum into the downed entity by literally placing the muzzle of the stainless-steel revolver's barrel against his chest and firing until it was completely spent.
There was so much more that I wanted to inflict upon the cloaked figure beneath me in the name of getting even with him for what he had done to my family. However, I stopped when I saw that my beloved wife had finished her setup to finish him off and was now looking at me with her beautiful glowing orange-red eyes. Just by the look in the raven-haired demoness's eyes, she was able to tell me that I had done enough as both a father and her husband. My bonded partner then gave me a slight smile as her way to say that it was okay for me to let her take care of things from here.
By then, the rest of the Wade Family had started to gather around us. I was relieved to see that Alpha 1 seemed to have not suffered any serious injuries from impacting the car with enough force to nearly flatten it as I saw him standing just to my left with Amara and Akira flanking him on either side. As always, my two beloved daughters' attachment to my brother was visible for all to see as they were both clinging onto the battle-scarred veteran Replica Heavy Trooper as they looked on with anticipation of what was about to happen.
I picked the ravaged form of the Headless Doctor up from the charred surface of the street with both of my gloved hands and then held him in place for a moment before me.
Despite having no head, the god-like entity was able to give one final remark due to the fact that he actually had no real organs to begin with, "You fool…you are going to regret giving that bitch so much power. She may a benevolent matriarch now…but mark my words…power corrupts all…it is only a matter of time. You are nothing but a fool that clings onto anyone that shows you kindness. She will be your ruin."
Disregarding his words because I fully believed in and trusted my beautiful best friend and wife, I simply raised my right leg up and then placed the bottom of my combat boot against his chest.
Then, as Alma prepared herself with a black void in the air behind her petite frame, I kicked the Headless Doctor towards her as I yelled, "Die Motherfucker!"
As the god-like entity stumbled back towards the raven-haired demoness, multiple thick tree branch-like tentacles appeared out of the ground around Alma and then moved to wrap around their victim. The cloaked entity tried to weakly push them away with his only remaining hand for a second but he was easily overwhelmed and then completely wrapped up by the manifested tentacles. As he was pulled into the black hole-like void behind the red dress-clad demoness that was the beloved Queen of the Wade Family, the Headless Doctor had just enough time to let out one final cry of defiance before vanishing forever inside of the void as his life force and power was completely cannibalized by her.
A thick, black aura that resembled heavy thunderstorm clouds began to partially enveloped Alma now hat she had absorbed the power of a god as she looked at us with her now even more brightly glowing orange-red eyes that perfectly illuminated her beautiful heart-shaped face for a moment.
Our unimaginably powerful protector and benevolent queen then mocked the defeated god-like entity one final time as she remarked in reference to the fact that the deceased doctor now had to answer to her murdered, deceased mother with her soft but mesmerizing voice, "Say hello to Mother."
Finally, Alma began to let out a loud, demonic cackle while her newly acquired psionic power continued to surge forth around her as the manifested pocket dimension around us disappeared in a bright white flash of light as we were returned to the Real World.
