Suri takes the hard way down a building. Then it's back up again just in time to come face to face with her dad's arch nemesis, King Saber.
"Oh my god, she's gorgeous~"
"Red! Red looks so pretty on her. I need to see more~"
"Oh god, I think I'm in love~"
"No! Wait, what about Izuku and Ochako? I still love them and how beautiful they look all cut up and bloody. Am I… Am I in love with her too?"
Suri was hearing voices again.
Which, if her last memory of getting intimate with an iron fire escape was correct, it could have been a sign of a concussion. Remembering how high she was, and falling like a ragdoll from the top of the top floor landing, hitting the railings who knows how many times, and then the ground. Yeah, concussion was very likely. It also explained why her entire body was literally thrumming with pain.
"Toga! Leave her! We've got other things to do."
Suri recognized that voice.
That was JJ. Apparently he was no longer unconscious and from the sounds of it, he was ordering Toga around. Suri thought she remembered something about Toga being pretty high up in the ranks in the League. If JJ was bossing her around, was he higher than her? When did all of that happen and why hadn't she known about JJ being a traitor, let alone being here?
Suri wasn't the only one not happy about the prospect about Toga being bossed around by JJ because she heard the blonde grumble and let out a low purring growl. Suri's eyes were still closed, refusing to open from how heavy they felt, but she didn't need her eyes to know that the look on the other girl's face was downright vicious. The air around her was thick with the threat of violence and it was clear to Suri that Toga wanted JJ to be bled dry.
"Bastard thinks he's so high and mighty. I wanna stab him so bad."
Toga let out a deep sigh and grumbled again, Suri hearing the rustling of clothes and feet letting her know that Toga was now standing and beginning to walk away. Then came a small happy noise from the girl that threw Suri off completely.
"Izuku. Ochako. Suri. They're all so pretty, I can't decide which I love more~"
Love?
Kicking someone out of a high rise building's top window was one hell of a way to say I love you to a person. One that Suri would much rather not experience again. Ever.
Once Toga was gone, Suri attempted to open her eyes. It was as painful as the rest of her body felt and took a few long moments before she was even able to do it. With her eyes open she was left staring down a long alleyway that was dark and dreary, beyond it she could see the base of the office building the rest of the heroes were at. Police lights were still swirling which gave a steady pulse of red and blue lights that led her to where she felt she needed to be.
Then came the long, drawn out task of pulling herself together and trying to stand up, which filled the alleyway with grunts of effort pushing through the pain, the hissing that spilled from her lips every time she moved a tender spot. Which was every time. She'd lost quite a bit of blood but it had been long enough ago that it had stopped and now her skin felt dry and crusty as a result. That wasn't even counting the grime and dirt she'd collected
Once she was upright, Suri took in her surroundings and took a quick check on herself and what she had in the tank as far as power went. Atiena was asleep inside their shared mind, most likely exhausted from the depletion in energy, but it hadn't been enough to reduce her back to her human form. She was about to ask why she wasn't broken beyond belief and basically found her answer, Atiena had been pumping her energy into healing her body and as a result she was still able to walk and move. Suri looked around again, groaning as her neck stung like hell when she turned to look up at the building she fell from and then back to the end of the alleyway. A bit of luck was blessed on her and she thanked her gods when she found her escrima sticks sitting on the ground not far from where her body had landed. She began dragging herself forward, grunting as she bent down to pick them up, slip them together and then began limping along forward, using her bo staff as a walking stick to help support her.
There was still a commotion going on ahead of her and she could hear choruses of voices, everything from yelling and screaming, fighting, to stern commands being sent out to whoever was listening. There were no choruses of voices inside her ear which meant she'd lost the comm piece again. Knowing it was gone a second time made it clear she needed to get a custom piece that wouldn't fall out.
Maybe she'd ask Mei, Pazuzu, or Taiga about it.
"Taiga!" Suri half screamed as she remembered the last thing she'd seen. Taiga had been captured and she had two guesses where the weretiger could be. She began moving faster, no matter how much it hurt, dragging herself closer to the operation. "Godammit Suri, get your head in the game."
When she got to the edge of the alleyway, her eyes widened from the activity. Countless villains or low level thugs were in cuffs, being hauled away in droves in the back of police cars and inmate vans. She watched the pro heroes and sidekicks, most of which she recognized from the Outsiders Agency, handling the villains and talking with police.
Did that mean the operation was over?
Then she recognized someone else who was wide eyed, scared, and running towards her.
"Wild Eyes! Holy shit, are you okay?" Polarity asked, getting to Suri and then cautiously looking her over from head to toe. It wasn't lost on the older woman that Suri flinched ever so slightly when she came to her.
"You are the real you, right?" Suri smiled lightly, trying to ease the tension her own subconscious had created.
"Yeah, I'm me. Sorry, Toga got me when she made a break for it at the first of the operation," Polarity apologized and explained while she turned herself to show a large gash down her forearm. It was a deep cut that she'd cleaned since receiving it and her sleeve was all but useless from how far it was split open. "We thought she was just running, we had no idea she was coming for you."
"Yeah, I keep paying for my stupid mistakes," Suri choked with a humorless laugh. "I should have taken her down when I had the chance. Anyway, how are things going?"
Polarity's face shifted. Suri watched her expression morph from being worried about Suri, to being worried about something else entirely. It was something Suri knew was a very bad sign.
"C'mon," she directed and began moving quickly through the crowd.
Suri dragged herself forward, trying to keep up as best as she could. It took her letting out a low growl and biting her tongue hard enough to taste blood for the rest of her body to stop aching. Once she'd tasted that copper candy, her pain seeped away and her mind focused on the taste and the ever so slight need for more. The need helped. Helped her to move faster and soon enough she wasn't relying on her bo staff to limp along and instead she'd warmed up to a light jog to catch up to Polarity.
When she caught up, her eyes widened again and fear shot through her core. The older woman had taken her to a small group of ambulances. DreamWeaver was in the back of one and Rook was in the other and between the two vehicles was Hellfire and Alexie. They were having a screaming match in Russian and both of them were soaked in the air of fear, anxiety, and anger. The yelling match stopped when they caught sight of Suri and they went from yelling at each other to looking over the girl in fear.
"Holy shit, darlin', you all right?" Hellfire asked quickly, his heavy drawl out in full force.
"Little one, you look like hell," Alexie shook his head as he looked her over.
"Getting kicked out of the top floor window of the observatory will do that to you," Suri smiled lightly, trying to humor her two mentors. "How are they? What happened up there? And… where's my dad?"
The two of them looked at each other for a long silent moment and then sighed and closed their eyes before both looking back at Suri.
"Dream and Rook took some pretty bad hits up there," Hellfire answered, looking over his shoulder and it wasn't lost on anyone that his eyes particularly lingered on the spider woman. "It was a fight from the second we landed on the roof."
"They knew we were coming," Alexie added, folding his arm across his chest and gripping his shoulder to make up for his other arm. He glared at the roof of the building and let out a low growl that offered an ever so slight trace of his beast. "It was ambush."
"I remember that everything was going well around the time wave two started. Over the comms, it sounded like Beta and Echo were backing you guys up perfectly. What happened?" Suri asked, furrowing her brow and shaking her head.
"That's just it," Polarity answered. "Once we started phase two of the plan, that was when Toga ran past us but before we could chase after her another fifty villains showed up."
"This is fourth round of police," Alexie nodded, motioning his head towards all of the police cars and the villains quickly filling all of them.
Suri's gut dropped when she heard the news and looked around at what Alexie was motioning towards. The sickening feeling of dread that something bad was happening or about to happen filled her and her fists began to flex nervously. The amount of bad guys was on purpose. It was just like Gemini's waterfront raid, a team to decimate the main forces and primary backup, and waves of cannon fodder to keep everyone else with their hands tied up. It was just like Suri had told Taiga, King Saber was always two steps ahead of them.
Everything in Suri's gut told her that tonight was the night. King Saber set all of this up to take revenge on her dad and his own daughter. And if the dread rumbling inside her chest was anything to go by, she needed to get to her dad as fast as she could. Her heart was screaming that she needed to go now or else she wouldn't see him alive again.
"Alester, teleport me," Suri quickly looked up to the hellspawn, determination written across her face clear as day.
"Teleport you? You kiddin' me? I ain't sending you nowhere, not with you looking like that," he argued, folding his arms across his chest and glaring back at her.
"Send me now, or I'm taking the outside elevator," Suri growled.
"Now listen here, I-"
Whatever Hellfire was going to say caught choked in the back of his throat as a loud beeping sound began ringing. It took his attention directly to the ambulance that had DreamWeaver in the back of it. His and Alexie's attention went directly to their teammate and the EMTs who had called out that her vitals were dropping and they were doing emergency support. She needed to get to a hospital. And fast. And her two mentors needed to be with her.
"Wild Eyes," Polarity's voice caught Suri's attention, turning her away from her mentors and back to the young pro heroine. "I'll get you up there. It's the least I can do since I got you kicked out of a window."
Suri looked at Polarity, then behind her to the observatory where she had been and then finally to the high rise behind them and to the top floor. From down here she could feel the power emanating from two uber powerful wereanimals going at it. She could scent wolf and tiger, even from this far down.
She also scented blood. Lots of it.
That was as much motivation as she needed before she began nodding and giving the heroine in front of her a small smile.
"Do it."
"You like rollercoasters, right?"
"I love them, actually."
"Good, then this won't be too bad. Make sure to tuck your arms and legs in."
"What?"
Before Suri could get any clarification, Polarity winked with her left eye and it began to lightly glow before she quickly grabbed Suri's shoulder and spun her around. Suri yelped as she was spun on her heels and made to face the building, now in front of her. She was also taken off balance so that she was falling backwards practically into Polarity's arms. If she had the time to think, she probably would have enjoyed, maybe even salivated at the thought of being in the older woman's embrace. Instead, Suri was taken off her feet and then she felt a hand press squarely against the center of her back.
"Aurora Slingshot!"
Air began to rush around Suri, her skin felt tight against her muscle and bone as she felt a sudden rush of g-forces. Suri felt like her limbs were going to rip off from the force when she remembered Polarity's words and she tucked herself into a ball. It helped a lot and it helped to reduce the strain her skin, muscles, and bones were feeling. The supermove's name was as on the nose as anything because Suri felt like she truly had been the little rock fired out of a slingshot. It took her all of five seconds to get from the ground to a dozen meters above the roof of her destination.
Looking down, her eyes widened and fear filled her entire form as she looked down on the sight below. Her mind flooded with a sickening sense of deja vu as she found her dad exhausted on his knees and struggling to pry the hand around his neck off of him. He was battered, cut up, beaten, and bloody as he looked up with a rage filled snarl. The man above him was in beastman form, his body covered in a rich golden red and orange fur with large black stripes. He had the werewolf right where he wanted him; on his knees with the tiger's hand around his throat, claws puncturing the muscular walls that were the werewolf's last line of defense. His other hand was raised, claws ready to strike a blow that would no doubt mutilate Alpha's face before the tiger ripped his throat out.
"Atiena!" Suri called out with a frantic tone.
"On it!" She called back.
Her beast was already moving, wrapping Suri in her arms and letting their combined energy combine into a large pulse of power. That quick build of lycanthropic energy popped with a forceful concussive wave at Suri's back, propelling her downwards like a comet towards the battle below. The rapid build in power meant that, while she was rocketing forward, her and Atiena shifted, becoming one again and taking their advanced beastwoman form as they raced downward enveloped in a glowing aura of golden green fire and lightning.
With a jet of force, a shroud of fire and electricity, and claws ready, Suri made her strike, leaving shimmering sparks and arcs of electricity that left claw marks floating in the air. A second later came a spray of blood and a loud bellowing roar from the tiger man who was now sans a left hand. After Suri had driven her claws through his flesh, severing the weretiger at the wrist, she rolled herself to tackle her dad away from the villain and tumbled away out of his range. The escape lasted for a few meters before they landed upright, Alpha at Suri's back as she narrowed her eyes and glared back at the tiger villain ahead of her, giving her her first full look at the weretiger that was All For One's enforcer, King Saber.
He was a tall man, easily between six foot four and six foot seven in height and a strong fighter's build. She'd seen the man in pictures outside of tiger form before and he had large broad shoulders and a thick chest, so that the business suits he wore barely hid the wrestler physique he naturally had. In tiger form, everything was accentuated, making his muscles bigger and tighter with strong definition even underneath the coat of short golden red, beige, and black bengal tiger fur. His brows narrowed as he watched Suri rip his prey from him, something which Suri couldn't decide if it meant he was annoyed with her presence or ever so slightly impressed.
His body relaxed slightly, going from being ready to kill to analyzing the new threat that Suri presented to him. It let Suri take him in fully. The tall, muscular tiger man was in a shed down suit, something that would have come across as nondescript or very typical for a CEO, big business mogul kind of guy. It was meant to be disarming. His slacks were dark slate, nearly black in color with thin gold foil pinstriping through them. They helped accentuate the build of his lower body as the pinstriped almost created a topographical map as they traced the ridges of the muscles in his thighs before loosening a little around the calves as they descended to his ankles. Following the stripes down led to finding that he was barefoot, his feet having left human form and traded themselves in for a pair of large feline paws. It meant that the looseness his pants had around his calves were a result of his lower legs shift to digitigrade.
As he shifted, Suri's eyes went up to focus on his upper body which was adorned in an intricate vest that had glinted in the light as he shifted. His vest was the same slate color as his pants but instead of fine and delicate pinstripes, the vest blossomed into an elegant and illustrious victorian pattern made from gold foil. The pattern was an ornate floral design that would have felt feminine if it wasn't on the man wearing it because his built frame and the golden three point crown on the left of his chest drove the intention home. He was a king. And a king enjoyed a degree of elegance because it signified the rule of royalty and by the gods would he consider himself just that.
To anyone that would find him attractive, the suit in its slate and gold foiling would help to drive home the desire. He was well built, well dressed, attractive, strong, and had a stoic confidence to him that guaranteed him whatever he wanted. That was part of the danger though because if you knew what he was capable of or could feel and sense the thick air or power around him, one that made you feel like you needed to kneel before him just from the weight of his presence. Even from a few yards away, his power and energy felt like you were standing inches from a bonfire and seconds away from being burnt alive. He was all danger and destruction wrapped in an elegant and illustrious package that made you want to call him king. And if that wasn't enough, the short concussive wave of power that popped as his flesh and muscle reshaped nearly instantly into a new left hand sent every hair on Suri's body on end. The power, the package that it came in all hid how dangerous he really was and now every sense of fight or flight was screaming bloody murder to run as fast as she could and get away from him.
This was King Saber.
"Well well, Demitrius, here I thought I had excused all of our unwanted audience," he spoke, his voice a deep soothing tone with a hint of rasp and purr from his tiger form. There was something else in his voice, something that said he was both intrigued and amused but also disappointed.
"Sorry, I have a habit of crashing private events," Suri growled in response, deepening her scowl at the man.
"Indeed you do. Something of a bad habit you've learned from your father," he replied, his face twisting into something of a smirk alight with sinister amusement.
"Get the hell out of here, Pupkit," Alpha growled as he pushed himself upwards and out of his daughter's grasp and protection. "Go get backup."
"I am the backup," Suri grinned wide.
"My," King Saber chuckled with amusement, lowering himself into a pouncing position. "You are your father's daughter."
"What the hell, you're supposed to be dead!"
All attention turned to a door towards the back of the large open space. The top of the building was a grand ballroom complete with balcony seating around the massive dance floor which had become the battleground. The door that had opened was the back stairwell of the building and in the doorway was a shocked and overwhelmed JJ. He was looking back and forth between King Saber and Suri, his eyes filling with fury and rage when he looked at Suri and pure fear when he looked at the weretiger. Behind him were a surprised Toga and Twice, the latter having Taiga draped over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
"Mr. Blackhurst," King Saber spoke, his voice bellowing and making everyone shiver as he addressed the younger werewolf. "Your instructions were simple; retrieve my daughter, without harming her, and remove Miss Kuroyashi from the playing field."
"It was Toga! She's the one who kicked Wild Eyes out the window!" JJ cried out defensively, moving himself away from the blonde and away from everyone else in the room.
"You slimy bastard," Toga sneered, pulling a knife from the pouch on her hip.
"Master, just give me one more chance. I can kill her," JJ pleaded, the fear in his voice spiking to an all time high as he put his hands together in a prayer fashion. He was begging for his life.
A rolling thunder of power erupted through the room, filling the spacious ballroom with the booming sound of a roar. The air around King Saber shimmered and in that instant he was gone! He reappeared across the room, his hand wrapped around the werewolf's forehead as he pinned him to a wall and held him suspended off the ground. The boy began screaming in panic and flailing as he was held in place with ease and the skin around King Saber's fingers rippled from how much pressure he was applying to hold him in place.
The weretiger was about to speak again but paused as the next line of words spilled from JJ's mouth, making the tiger hesitate and then grin with sadistic intent.
"Ulfric! Please! Help me!"
Alpha shuddered, his eyes going wide as he staggered to his feet and readied to go to JJ. Though, he and everyone knew it was the younger werewolf's last ditch bargain for help. Lest he ask for forgiveness if Alpha did manage to save him.
"Interesting," King Saber chuckled softly. "You wish to return to that heathen?"
Before JJ could answer that question, a pop of power erupted in the room and a flash of golden amber lightning flickered throughout the ballroom. In a flash of speed and power, Alpha rammed himself into Kinger Saber, driving his shoulder into the weretiger's back and forcing them both into the wall with an incredible amount of force. It was enough to break the tigere's hold on JJ who dropped to the ground and began backing away from the scene. If he hadn't been backing away, the force of the blows that followed would have pushed him anyway. Alpha and King Saber began leveling each other, hitting and clawing each other with brute force back and forth as they wrestled for the dominant position.
To Alpha's first shoulder tackle, King Saber responded with a hard elbow, aiming for the back of the werewolf's head. His strike was taken off its trajectory when Alpha parried and then drove a left fist hard into the weretiger's face. It was hard enough that the sickening crack of King Saber's nose being broken was heard throughout the ballroom. Before he could recover, the tiger was getting rocked square in the kidneys with multiple strikes from Alpha. They were enough to push the tiger backwards, eventually pushing him to the wall with nowhere to go.
Backed into a corner, King Saber roared and rallied back, fist parrying one kidney strike and then grabbing the second and holding Alpha's fist hostage. Before Alpha could strike again with his free hand he was hit with a hard roundhouse kick that was coupled with a pop in explosive lycanthropic power. It sent a shockwave out from him, shaking the ground beneath everyone's feet while Alpha was sent airbourne across the room. The force was hard enough that, even though Alpha covered the distance across an entire ballroom floor, he hit the opposite wall while still a couple feet off the ground and went through it.
King Saber began to laugh in triumph as he took the leisurely time to reset his nose and then blow it. Wads of blood and thicker things hit the floor as he cleared his nasal cavities with a grin and he rolled his neck, popping it like he was just getting warmed up for the fight. Before he could think to attack Alpha again, he watched as the air in front of him shimmered and then he was hot with a hard right fist that sent him to one knee. He looked up, expecting to see Alpha, only to meet a pair of fiery golden green eyes and the back of a left heel. Suri hit him a second time, clocking him in the chin with the result of a front flip kick that drove him from one knee to all fours. There was another roar as Suri tried following up that kick with a hard right hook and had a second to blink in shock when her right fist was caught in the tiger's grip.
"King's Palm!"
A shockwave of fire and pure weretiger energy hit Suri in the chest as she was hit with an open palmed strike that packed as much punch and heat as one of Bakugou's explosions at his highest output. Suri screamed in pain as her skin and suit were seared from the fiery energy blast that sent her airborne as well except her path ended up being more vertical and into the ceiling and overhead performance lighting. Her body crashed through what was remaining of a large catwalk and massive square framed structure that was holding the remaining spotlights. The two large spotlights came down with Suri's body, burying her in a pile of glass, metal, and concrete and pinning her to the ground underneath them.
"I see why my Gemini took a liking to you," King Saber chuckled, grinning from ear to ear as he stood back up and brushed himself off. "I had forgotten why I never killed your father back then. It seems your family is quite the feast of worthy opponents for me. Hell, I haven't had this much fun in years."
JJ let out a panicked scream and everyone's attention turned to him. He was beating on a steel door that was jammed shut from the destruction around it. He hadn't thought to use his strength as a werewolf in his panic, meaning he was just that scared of the weretiger.
And for good reason.
"Ah yes, I have loose ends needing to be trimmed," King Saber muttered. There was a hint of sick pleasure that came with the implications of those words but all in all, he sounded bored with the thought.
There was a flash of golden energy and the air where King Saber was standing flickered, his visage disappearing only to reappear behind the panicky werewolf. He simply and calmly placed a hand on JJ's shoulder and the boy froze instantly, his breathing still labored and wheezing as the air of fear and terror rose dramatically. Next came a slow dance of movement as King Saber patiently and calmly walked JJ side by side back towards the center of the room with a smile.
"Now, Mr. Blackhurst, I should say I have enjoyed some of the progress you've made. You've been a wonderful employee all these years," the weretiger spoke, happy and friendly, like he was just the run of the mill boss. "You showed promise when you were first brought to me, what has it been ten years ago now?. I could tell you and Gemini would be star employees and you were. You earned trust and won hearts with ease. You showed great potential the other night with your brutality but…"
"Master, please," JJ pleaded quietly.
"Ah, hush now, your employment is being evaluated, my boy," the weretiger chuckled again. The act of being just a friendly boss talking to an underling was getting creepier by the second. "You have great potential, Mr. Blackhurst, but you've wasted it. Squandered it and for what?"
The flare of anger made JJ flinch and got Suri moving again. She felt like she needed to hurry because something was about to happen. Something she could stop. She wrestled herself out from under some of the debris only to hit a wall, literally, that helped to create a cage with a view in the wreckage.
"You, my boy, were supposed to be one of the shining beacons to our cause in the West. It was there for the taking! All you had to do was ensure that your cousin's rise to power was a success. It was easy! But I think that one blinded you," King Saber continued, his words growing more impatient and angry as time went on. With his last sentence, he dipped low enough to be eye level with JJ and turned the both of them to look straight at Suri.
Suri growled and pushed at the structure keeping her caged. It creaked and whined from the strain but wouldn't budge, not from the weight of the roof pushing down on the steel. The scaffolding-like steel structure had openings and normally she would have fit through them but with how battered they'd biome in the fall after she hit them they were bent just enough to prevent her from squeezing through. In frustration she punched the cage, letting it rattle and creak more as she watched the scene in front of her. The dreaded feeling in her gut was making her have flashbacks again. This time it was seeing the same smile on King Saber that she'd seen on Hyrum Black that night. The same smile he had right before he tried to kill Mathias.
"She is a pretty little thing so I can see why you would get distracted," King Saber grinned wider. "But! You remember our goal, the world we wish to create. You knew All For One's plan and yet you let one of the simplest of tasks evade you."
"Suri," JJ began whimpering, his body shaking as fear took over completely. It was his final plea, hoping and praying that his ex might find some semblance of remorse. "Help me."
Suri grabbed and pulled at the wreckage, trying to break free without collapsing everything around her. If she trapped herself worse, she'd be even more useless than she felt right now in this moment.
"Mr. Blackhurts, I believe your employment has come to an end," King Saber chuckled with delight, before pure evil stretched itself across his face. He was lavishing at this sick little game of his and now it came time for the most sadistic and fun part of his performance. "You're fired!"
King Saber shifted, going full classic wereanimal form. It made his broad, sculpted chest even broader as his vest ripped to pieces and exposed his complete upper body. His hips had stayed relatively the same size while his thighs thickened with extra layers of firm muscle, the slacks tightening and ripping at the seams. If he had been large before, now he was massive. He was a daunting figure, taking the already massive features of a bengal tiger and putting them on top of his already bulky frame. He was a hulking monster with massive claws and teeth which is how Suri realized he got his name. His fangs had extended, protruding from his gums and curling down past his chin. He was a saber toothed bengal tiger!
Before he could do anything in this terrifying monstrous form of his, he was tackled, taken to the ground and dragged along it as a large, black and amber furred werewolf took him down. The wolf roared as he crashed into the tiger, making the villain snarl in pain before a pair of massive fists came crashing down on him.
Alpha, in his own classic werewolf form, pounded and slammed his fists into King Saber making the back of the tiger's head bounce off the floor again and again like a basketball. Blood was pouring from the tiger's nose, mouth, and the back of his head but still the wolf refused to relent his heavy-handed assault. Even when King Saber slipped into unconsciousness, Alpha prove his fists into him, pummeling his head and face with as much force as he could deliver, each fist hitting the villain with the force of a small truck.
"JJ, help me out of here," Suri called out to the werewolf as he slowly backed away from the scene at hand. He turned his terrified eyes onto Suri, watching her struggle with the cage of debris around her and began slowly shaking his head. His breathing and scrambling became more panicked as he took off running instead. "JJ! Dammit!"
Suri screamed in frustration as she kicked at the steel frame in rage and had to jump out of the way as part of the roof came down. It shrunk the size of her cage as the piece flattened and caved in the left side of the impromptu jail cell making the space now just more than her own height across. Suri cursed under her breath as she watched the side of the cage cautiously, then she heard grunting from the other side of her. Suri turned around and froze in surprise as she watched a pair of men in black and silver spandex grabbing at the rubble and trying to lift it. Suri shook her head, unsure of what to make of what she was seeing because watching two Twice clones trying to free her was not what she'd expected. And then came the next hit of shock as her eyes fell on a third member trying to get her out of her cage; Toga.
"Help us lift, you idiot," she snarled, her cat-like eyes narrowing at Suri while she gripped and tried pulling at the bars.
"We'll get you out! Leave it to us," one of the Twice clones declared before instantly contradicting his own words. "You should stay trapped forever!"
"Why not take off running like that prick," Suri asked. She grunted and growled in return as she grabbed at her cage again, trying to lift or bend the bars enough for her to get out. Even with the four of them, the rubble was heavy enough that it barely shifted.
"Because we don't want to owe a debt," Toga growled out, clearly frustrated at the prospect.
Suri was taken aback by the reasoning. It didn't make sense for the two villains to want to help her, even moreso because she couldn't quite figure out when they'd become indebted to her. It wasn't like Toga had seemed that worried about a debt when she kicked Suri out of that window and left her for dead. It was throwing her off to think about.
A distraction arose when a sound of a pained scream erupted and sent chills down Suri's spine before she looked over and saw what had made the sound. King Saber's mouth was wrapped over Alpha's left shoulder, his long, curved fangs sunk into his back.
"Dad!"
Alpha growled and grunted in pain as blood poured from his shoulder and chest because the fangs had gone all the way through his body. Any movement from either of them tore the holes bigger, threatening to cause more damage if the werewolf wasn't careful. A thunderous wave of energy erupted from Alpha, thickening and turning the air around him into a thick, suffocating torrent that pressed and whipped at the tiger furiously. The weight and sting of power smacked and struck the tiger again and again while the thickness of the air threatened to choke him into submission.
Alpha was hitting King Saber with a massive Wave of Domination, showing Suri that it was truly powerful enough to throw off even the All For One's commander. A second hit of the wave made King Saber falter in his reign of dominance over Alpha, giving the werewolf a chance to reach across himself with his right hand, grab the tiger by the nose and upper jaw and pull with as much strength as he could. It also helped that Alpha's palm was pressing into the tiger's crushed nose, making it spurt with even more blood as he struggled to breath. Slowly but surely, Alpha pulled the twin sabertooth fangs from him, the pierced holes spurting and gushing once the teeth were free.
To free himself from the hero's grasp, King Saber struck a blow to the newly injured shoulder, sending shockwaves of pain throughout Alpha. The werewolf was forced a step backward but that space was enough for the tiger to gain the upper hand - or rather foot - because Alpha received a large foot paw directly to the gut. It sent him flying through the air once again, and this time it was directly at Suri.
"Get down!" Suri shouted as she quickly grabbed Toga and Twice by the tops of their heads through the rubble and forced them down and out of the way.
She hadn't even thought about whether the two of them were villains or enemies. A second time in less than a week. None of that mattered to her when she reacted and got them out of the flight path of her dad who hit Suri's cage like a wrecking ball and went through it just the same. It tore the cage and pile of rubble to pieces, pieces that hit Suri and put her on her back from how hard they'd hit her. Her vision was cloudy again and her ears rang but she pushed, forcing herself to recover as fast as she could. She rolled onto her hands and knees as she relearned how to breath and coughed from the effort. Another pained cry from her dad made her cough again and blink rapidly as she forced her senses to right themselves.
"I truly hate you, Demetrius," King Saber snarled as he pushed with force and then righted himself, returning to a calm business-like nature. When he had pushed, he had impaled Alpha, much the same Suri had done to Gemini in their last fight. Only this time, it was a two pronged fork created by the twisted remains of a lighting truss instead of a fence pole. Blood was pouring from his deltoids as he was pierced through that space his pectoral and trapezius muscles. To make matters worse, King Saber bent the ends so that even if Alpha tried pulling himself off, he'd have to rip his chest in half to get out. "But I would be a fool to deny that all of these years have been quite enjoyable."
"Glad I could provide you with some entertainment," Alpha grunted, trying to bend the ends away from his body. It was apparent he was far past his limit and was struggling to even keep his beast form intact. "So tell me, what's the end game here Kenji? Why the big show?"
"Oh that's quite simple," the weretiger grinned, watching his handiwork before stepping backwards and looking down at Suri. "I want this little rivalry of ours to continue, even after we're both dead and gone."
"This… empire," he laughed and twisted himself around, holding his arms outward to motion towards all of the destruction around him. "It's the greatest rivalry anyone could have built. We're like the Apple and Microsoft of heroes and villains. I've always had an eye for pushing your boundaries, testing limits, and pushing us both forward into a new world order and you… well you've just gotten… soft."
King Saber then held up a finger, giving the one moment gesture as his image shimmered and then reappeared in front of a still distraught JJ. He caught the young werewolf by the neck and then dragged him comfortably kicking and screaming back towards Alpha and Suri with one arm. It was an impressive, but also massively terrifying display.
"Soft enough that you never noticed the cracks in your ranks," King Saber stared down at JJ in his hand, his palm pressed against the boy's mouth so he couldn't talk or scream. "I would have thought you'd know better, Dem. How else would a small clan of promising and powerful wolves just show up on your doorstep, not once, but twice?"
"Promising," Suri coughed as she got to her feet, swaying a little as she did so. "Can't be all that promising if my family beat them."
"And see, my dear, that's where you come in," he grinned again, looking directly into Suri's eyes. "I had everything planned, or at least I thought I did. But you? I hadn't planned for you. Even now, you're defying everything that I set into motion. That's why I had to make some adjustments to my endeavors."
"What kind of adjustments?" Alpha growled as he continued working on trying to bed the metal in front of him so he could release himself. He also did not like the way his nemesis was looking at his daughter.
"First, I need to trim the fat from this empire of ours. Start anew. Make some changes in the staff," King Saber stated nonchalantly, like he was just some big business CEO conducting an average Monday staff meeting.
There was no emotion one way or another in his tone, if anything he came off friendly. Friendly even as his hand squeezed JJ's head, claws digging into his flesh and letting blood begin to pour from around his claws. Friendly and non-threatening even as his free hand came up and struck quickly in a flash of movement that resulted in a quick burst of blood before JJ's body fell limp to the floor. His body was severed clean at the neck, leaving his head inside the weretiger's hand as blood and gore pattered the ground in a soft shower. The quick, emotionless brutality left Suri stunned, frozen in place from just how little care he had for the life that had been in his hand. Alpha growled, screaming at King Saber as he dug into the remainder of his strength, trying with all he had to free himself.
"Now, I believe it's time for your performance reviews, Mr. Bubawaigara, Miss Toga," he said, again in his friendly every day tone, while his eyes lit up with glee revealing his true nature.
Time seemed to freeze just then. Suri watched almost in slow motion as King Saber carelessly tossed the head of her former lover over his shoulder with absolutely no semblance of remorse or care. Slow motion as he practically walked in a gentle stride, grabbed Twice by the head the same as he'd done to JJ and squeezed, eliminating the clone with a pop that melted into a puddle of liquid mud and clay. She saw his next targets and everything went blank.
Suri's senses fade, her vision going white and the world around her going cold.
The last thing she remembered was someone screaming her name.