Chapter 27- Blast Twice, Cut Once
The following is a fan-made work of fiction. Certain original characters made by myself will be claimed under my ownership. However, I do not, nor will I ever claim to own Mega Man Battle Network.
Mega Man Battle Network © Capcom
Reddington Bluemann, Phyllis Tina, Ripley Marduk, Myth Man, Bobby and Helena Crosby, Desiree Domin, and Castiel Lex-Ordo © HatOnFire/Me
In Den Town, Mayl and Chaud spotted trouble several feet ahead of them. Bomb Man and Cut Man in were scaring off the pedestrians and damaging cars and property with their weapons.
"Get ready…" Chaud placed his chip in, transforming his appearance. Out of sight from everyone else, of course.
"Roll, I need you!" Mayl called for me after taking a breath, drawing out her Synchro Chip.
"Here we go again…" I uttered what everyone else thought when everything hit the fan.
Mayl did what Chaud had done and we took to the air once the transformation was complete.
"Yeah!" Bomb Man roared, punting a car against a building's wall, shattering it and the car. "How do those lamers like me now?!"
"Remember why we're out here, Bomb Man," Cut Man felt the need to remind him, "Divide and conquer. Keep an eye out for their human counterparts."
"I'm not worried," Bomb Man raised a leg up and brought his heel on a station wagon's hood, "They're nothing next to us!"
"Care to test that claim?" Chaud questioned, appearing before the two with Mayl in their Cross Fusion forms. As he drew his sword, Mayl spawned the longbow buster.
"Just in time," Bomb Man chuckled, summoning bombs on the ground. "Let's have fun before we have to go to SciLab."
[Times Square Off Track 2, Lego Marvel Super Heroes]
"Roll Arrow!" Mayl fired our heart-tipped arrows at Cut Man, who knocked them away with his big scissors, responding by throwing them in another direction.
"Cut Boomerang!" His attack unfortunately started to spiral all around us, cutting street lights down while trying to get us!
Mayl dashed for Cut Man, but he wasn't defenseless. He blocked the punches and kicks that she threw, catching her foot and holding her out for his boomerang to fly into her.
"Roll Flash!" Thinking fast, she had our antennae strike the WWW Navi in his big eyes, making him let go of us as we narrowly went to the right. The scissors automatically went back on top of his head.
"That wasn't nice!" He seethed, covering his eyes with his left hand and turning his right arm into a sword.
"Cope," My friend barked as her hands morphed into an Aqua Blade and a Zap Ring buster with two white oblong ends, sparkling with electricity. She proceeded to fire the electric ring at him.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Bomb Man repeatedly punched at C. F. Proto Man, who deflected all of his strikes with his sword and shield.
"Wide Sword!" He took his shot, swiping from left to right, but the Mohawk Navi caught it with one hand.
"This is it?" He broke the sword by crushing it with his hand and delivered a field goal kick into Chaud's stomach, forcing him to hit the trunk of a passenger car. "The leader cautioned me about you, but this is your best? How boring."
"You haven't seen anything yet…" Chaud whispered, giving his body time to adjust to that blow. His sword reformed itself, right as three bombs started flying at him. He got up and sliced them in half, releasing a Sonic Boom at Bomb Man soon after.
"He's taunting us," Proto Man noted as Bomb Man yawned, letting a gray Dominerd with black hair take the hit for him. "I recommend we force him into complacency."
"He won't stop there," Chaud observed, having little time to avoid the counterattack.
"AHH!" Mayl screeched, feeling Cut Man's sword run along her back. She even got kicked by him.
"You're no threat to us WWW Navis," He confidently marched towards her, "Give up."
"Don't listen to him!" I encouraged Mayl, "Even with his moves, he has to fight dirty to win!"
"I know…" She acknowledged me, "I'm just worried about what's going to happen to SciLab if we don't get there in time. We have to end this quick!"
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[Times Square Off Track 1, Lego Marvel Super Heroes]
Over at SciLab, Lan was skating on the sidewalk around SciLab, looking for another way inside.
"Dad!" He tried calling out to them through the PET, but this time, there wasn't any reply. "Dex! Ripley! Anyone?!"
"We need to break in now!" Mega Man advised, "Insert the Synchro Chip!"
"Even if we do that, how can we get in?" Lan wondered, "What if the vents are locked up?"
Suddenly, the doors broke open, flying off their hinges! With his thoughts dissipated, Lan got out of the way before they could fall on him. The entrance stairs were covered in a gold-yellow substance that began moving like a slinky, meeting up with an oddly tall figure in yellow.
It was about nine feet tall, possessing a muscular body like an athlete or bodybuilder. Its fingers were rectangular and blocky, its feet was leaving gold-yellow puddles of its structure on the ground, and the muscles around the neck looked incredibly thick. It had an oval-shaped head with a rectangular chin and only one eye, a yellow eye with a red outline and black sclera in place of the typical white.
"BUMOOOOOOOO!" Whatever it was, it made a deep bass sound effect, running off with the yellow ooze attracted to his feet.
"What the heck was that?!" Mega Man exclaimed, "I heard it, but what is it?!"
"A yellow monster?!" Lan was in awe for a moment, "Where did WWW get that thing?!"
He saw someone familiar inside the lobby. It was a man draping a light blue trench coat over his shoulder.
"Redd?!" He called out, removing his skates and getting inside to reach him. That was when he finally saw his long and bushy red hair and goatee.
"Yeah, you're seeing red, kid," The man smirked at him, tipping the hat up like he was in a 195X noir show. "And lots of yellow."
"Mr. Match…" Lan cracked his knuckles with a growl, "We meet again."
"Face to face," Match added, tossing the hat and coat on the floor. "I love a good disguise, but blue's more your style, if you know what I'm saying."
"Whatever the heck that yellow thing is, call it off!" The brown-haired boy demanded, "You don't need to turn it loose on innocent people!"
"The Yellow Devil isn't doing anything unpleasant, Lan. If people get in the way, they get swatted. Speaking of swatting, I've got time for us until it gets the Fire Program."
"You want a fight?"
"Pretty much," Match nodded, "But let me see your reflexes in real time first!"
Soon after, he ran at Lan, aiming his fist at his face. Lan ducked at the right moment, swinging back in kind, only to miss.
"That's how it's gonna be, huh?"
"It's how I want it to be," Match threw another punch at Lan, who turned his body to the right, then backed up a few times as the red-haired man tried to break his jaw. "I need the warm-up!"
There was a calm aura about Lan, who kept his fists raised to block his opponent's strikes, but he didn't deliver any hit of his own. He was more focused on studying him, recognizing how strong the man was by peering into his eyes.
"Lan, stop backing up!" Mega yelled, "Hit him!"
"Dex told me what you and Fire Man did," His operator pointed out, dodging a haymaker punch. "You even scolded Stone Man for getting a man paralyzed. But why fight me after all that?"
"It's for a better world, mostly!" Match replied with words and a leg sweep that failed to catch the teenager, "But I also want to test my power against an inspiration! You!"
"A better world?!" Lan questioned, taking his jacket off. "How can you do that when your accomplices are causing terror?!"
"It's a means to an end!" He charged and tackled him to the ground, "Through terror and destruction of the world, we'll build a new one! An immortal world for immortal people!"
Lan used both of his feet to kick Match off of him, quickly getting up.
"You sound insane!" He couldn't understand what he was talking about.
"Trust me, you'll see in the end," Match clenched his fist while on one knee, reaching for his PET on a holster. "This power has so much potential beyond just helping others."
A red flash of light resembling flames covered him and littered the ground he stood on, beginning to change.
"Also, my Synchro Chip is permanently molded with my PET," He smirked as his transformation began, "Fire Man and I can do this at will now! So, come on, kid!"
"Have it your way," Lan slipped the special chip in his PET, "Tell me all about your world. Only if you win, that is…"
"Finally," Mega felt the change inside the PET, watching the space darken and enclose around him. A white circle glowed under his feet, with small screens of visual and technical information appearing before his eyes. "We stop them here, we can stop them cold."
Inside the main computer room, the Yellow Devil allowed a memory card to rise out of its index finger, sliding it into a slot. In the computer, viruses were unleashed, directed to search for the Fire Program, wherever it was.
The other door opened up, with Dex, Dr. Hikari, and Dr. Cossack coming out. They managed to unlock the door that trapped them in Mission Control only for the Yellow Devil to rotate its head.
"BUMOOOO!" It elongated its arms at them, splattering them against the floor as they screamed!
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[BGM: Cinq Ville - Cest Notre Espoir, Mega Man ZX Tunes]
On a bustling highway in the center of town, several cars were trying to get off of it at quickly as possible. The fight Mayl and I had with the scissor-wielding maniac took us right to that point, involving lots of thrown scissors and disconnected light posts and traffic lights.
"Try my supersized Cut Boomerang!" Cut Man shouted, producing a larger variant of his attack and tossing it at us.
"Get ready!" I told Mayl, directing her for when to jump over it. "Jump!"
"Hah!" Mayl did so, firing back with a Roll Arrow. It didn't do much to him, but we both hoped he lost some chips from that.
"Alright, girls," Judging from the angered tone in his voice, we must've ticked him off. He had three Mettaur 2 viruses materialize to box us in.
I activated the Proto Man Navi chip on Mayl's behalf, swiftly deleting the viruses. But since our opponent hid behind a car, he was spared from the red Navi copy.
"We have to get him out in the open!" Mayl ran around the cars, outrunning more flying shears. She managed to get behind him, but he expected us.
"Nice try!" Cut Man threw a kick from his side, then followed up with a high kick, a low kick, and even spun on one foot while holding his left leg out. We were forced to back off, especially when he did that boomerang attack again.
Mayl slid under a red car, needing time to come up with another plan of attack.
"I have a ploy, but you need to time it right so it can work!" I selected the chips for her, having a strategy in mind. She said nothing, trusting me on this.
"Come on!" Mayl came out from her hiding spot, manipulating her antennae to try and whip him again. It got part of his leg when he leapt backwards.
He charged at us, performing a handstand and wildly swinging his legs around, but we dodged him again with our speed, reappearing behind Cut Man.
"Rock Cube and Air Shot!" Mayl created the stone cube and blasted it with a small burst of air, causing it to crash into Cut Man for great damage. Those chips were situational at best, but they worked well in this case.
"We have him on the ropes!" Checking his numbers, I learned we needed something to deal 160 points of damage to end this fight. However, what we had would only miss.
"Need more time?" Mayl briefly questioned, knowing the answer to that. "No problem."
With a frustrated shout, Cut Man unleashed more Cut Boomerangs from his body, letting them fly all around the highway!
Mayl did what she could to avoid them, but we got caught in a tornado created by Cut Man, who also used Step Sword on us.
"AGH!" We simultaneously cried in pain.
"Now then, let's finish this once and for all!" Cut Man yelled, summoning a black Cloudy 3 virus with a white and purple umbrella. He watched it direct rain from a smaller cloud it produced as he hung on to the underside. I started to regret sacrificing those Zap Ring chips until we saw him swinging under the virus.
"Here!" I swiftly transmitted chip data for her as I notified her, "He's going to dive kick us."
And my prediction came true. Luckily, Mayl moved out of the way, letting him tear his leg into a car's roof.
"Long Sword!" My partner swung a blade that marked his right arm, causing pixels to scatter from around that wound.
"YOW!" He screeched, relentlessly throwing Rolling Cutters as they spawned in.
"Finish it, Mayl!" I called for her, but she focused on leading the scissor throws over to the virus above her, allowing it to get deleted. Furthermore, she fired buster shots at Cut Man to get him off the car.
"Dodge this!" He threw the scissors on his head at us, retreating by jumping over a blue van.
"Ratton 2!" Mayl finally dropped a red mouse that went directly under the van and tracked him down, colliding into him.
And boom! Cut Man started to feel his body fall apart into small squares! Mayl ran over to him so we could make sure the hit was final.
"I'LL BE BAAAACCCCKKK!" Cut Man cried as he left in a spectacular explosion before our eyes. However, we knew this was far from over.
"You waited until he got off of the car?" I checked in with her on that split second decision.
"We're trying to avoid collateral damage, remember?" Mayl reminded me, taking a moment to breathe. "Trying being the operative word."
"You need to take care of yourself, too," I recommended to her, being the only one who truly knew her limits. "That concussion hasn't had time to properly heal."
"Thanks, Roll," She reaffirmed with some gratitude, "How's Chaud doing?"
We saw our red coworker taking on his enemy, but he wasn't performing like usual. Bomb Man grabbed his leg and yanked him down several times.
"Pathetic!" Bomb Man tried stomping on him, but he rolled along the street and got as far away as he would allow.
"That was a lucky shot," Chaud whispered, "Every second he's in the real world, we risk everyone's lives."
"He threw us off with an aggressive charge, pardon the expression," Proto Man recounted the beginning of the fight, "But if we keep our distance, we can wear him down with long-ranged attacks. We can destroy his bombs before they detonate."
"You lamers don't have a chance," Bomb Man uttered, having a green explosive with a sensor appear, making Chaud flee when an explosion travelled straight down to him! "Unlike you, I'm a Navi, and I have so much energy to spare."
Chaud learned too late that he stepped on a mine, taking damage that put him closer to the danger zone.
"How careless!" He berated himself, "I need to anticipate what he'll do next and stop worrying about the threat he possesses to everyone else!"
A catchy theme from a bomb-lobbing video game rang out in Bomb Man's systems, letting him know he was being called.
"Yeah, boss?" Bomb Man quickly replied, "I know Cut Man's been deleted, but I can beat him!"
"I don't doubt your confidence," The leader spoke to him, "Direct your attention to the highway."
"What do you want me to do?" He looked away from his enemy for a moment.
"Demolish it," He ordered, "We need to keep eyes away from SciLab for a little longer."
"As you wish, my lord," Bomb Man responded, preparing to chuck a bomb at C. F. Proto Man. But he quickly turned around to toss it to the top of the highway!
"Whoa!" Mayl and I cried, startled by that crazy action and the explosion that followed!
[BGM: Black Burn, Mega Man ZX Tunes]
"Viruses!" Bomb Man ordered, "Level this highway, then spread out across Den Tech City!"
"Lord Chaud!" Proto Man saw the WWW Navi ready to throw another charge, this time at one of the beam bridge's columns!
Fortunately, Chaud calmly intercepted the lit sphere by bashing it with his shield, redirecting it in the air, where it exploded.
"I'm not going to let that happen!" Chaud drew his sword again, standing opposite to the destructive enemy.
"I broke your sword earlier," Bomb Man scoffed, "You don't stand a chance against me!"
"Super Wide Sword!" Chaud ignored him, motioning forward to give the impression he was going to slash at him from up high. However, he jumped away as he positioned his sword horizontally, slicing part of the Navi's forearms when he crossed them to block it.
Next, he stabbed at Bomb Man's right side of his torso.
"Grr!" Bomb Man growled, raising his left leg up to kick him, but he evaded it.
"Condor!" Having a Fishy 3 virus summoned, Chaud hopped on his glider and started to spam as many Sonic Booms as he could, forcing the Mohawk Navi to run.
"Mayl, get ready!" I yelled while changing chip folders, "We can't let them get away with this!"
"I'm not ready to quit being a meddling kid just yet!" Mayl really went there. I'm surprised I remained in sync with her after she made that reference.
*RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!*
Green Satella 2s opened fire above us, pelting the empty cars and highway with shots from their Gatling guns.
Mayl hovered above the ground, outmaneuvering the aerial raid, and returned fire with two Hurricane chips. They pierced two of the viruses, but they sadly weren't enough.
"Double Thunder 3!" Two thunder balls were sent against them, deleting those two for good. But what I hated about this was that four more Satellas took their place.
"Hyper Bomb advance, now!" Mayl cried, twirling away from more gunfire.
Chaud wasn't doing much better, slicing apart more bombs to keep the highway from collapsing on top of the panicking civilians.
"You shouldn't fly in a surface-to-air Navi's presence!" Bomb Man brought his knuckles together as his forearms became gold. He used the two Gold Fist chips to let out eighteen flying fists in the sky, causing more problems for Chaud.
Chaud flew his glider in a zigzag pattern to stay airborne, which worked well for him. He flew close to the ground with a Bamboo Sword, turning around to clothesline the WWW Navi.
"Iron Body!" Except Bomb Man wasn't as stupid as he was evil. The wooden edge didn't do anything to him since his body was now encased in digital iron.
"Sensor 1!" Chaud had an easy remedy, summoning a Killer Eye virus that was a light blue eye surrounded by yellow lines with a black body, containing small tubular arms and lightning bolt ears. One look at Bomb Man, and it swiftly fired a yellow beam that pierced his body, ending his rock-hard transformation.
"Step Cross!" With him stunned, Chaud easily made a crossing slash on him, doing more damage than normal. He backed off on his ride once Bomb Man stood up.
"Chaud, behind you!" Proto Man told him, but Mayl's fight with the highway viruses kept him from hearing the sound of a flying cannonball, which blindsided him as it exploded into fire!
"AGH!" He felt lava scald his costume, landing to the pavement. He soon got out of the way of a red Fishy 2 that charged at him, carrying the gold-colored Hardhead variant, HotHead, the culprit that blasted him.
The Fishy 2 circled around as the virus it carried opened up to fire again, but he deleted them both by jumping alongside them with an Aqua Sword at the right moment.
As that happened, the Condor flew into Bomb Man and knocked him over, at the cost of wearing itself down.
"A luck of the draw, that's all this was," The stocky Navi refused to accept Chaud as a worthy foe, spawning more bombs to kick.
Chaud played along, cutting apart one that flew at him. He also ran his sword into another one that landed close to a building.
The third bomb landed right of a bridge's column, and it was ready to explode.
Thinking quickly, Chaud jumped in front of the column and brought out his shield, jamming it sideways in the ground, protecting himself and the column from the shockwave of the blast.
"Super Vulcan!" Bomb Man kept him pinned down with a golden Gatling gun with a red base.
"Lord Chaud, an Anti-Chip is in play!" Proto Man stated.
"Switch to the spare folder!" Chaud ordered, "I have three chips I want you to select!"
Proto Man did as he was told, swiftly retrieving what he was told to take.
"Bomb Shoot!" As Chaud anticipated, Bomb Man was ready to kick more bombs at him, unaware that he was already defeated.
"Heat-V!" Chaud created a heat buster on his arm, firing a burning shot that blew up in a V-pattern at the bomb as it was kicked, detonating it prematurely.
"AAAAHHHHH!" Bomb Man screamed, caught in the blast.
Chaud moved close to him, having entered Full Synchro with that attack.
"YAH!" The WWW Navi furiously punched down on him, only to have felt his hand knock down a plushie-like version of Proto Man instead. He found himself struck by three throwing stars from afar by Chaud!
Landing on the street, Chaud unleashed his final attack, Red Wave, which flung lava forward at Bomb Man, who subconsciously brought more of his bombs with him!
"Oh no!" Bomb Man attempted to use another defensive chip, but once the digital lava came down upon him, it wouldn't have mattered. He was in the middle of his own explosion again, and this time, it knocked him out!
"Navi incapacitated," Chaud muttered in exhaustion, "Great operating, Proto Man."
"All due respect, this was all you, sir," Proto Man politely avoided taking credit for this win.
"Mayl, I need out down here now," Chaud wasted no time to make demands, like usual. At least there was a reason behind this.
"There's so many viruses up here!" Mayl levitated down to his level, "They're starting to bring in more firepower!"
"I need you to gain access to his memory logs," C. F. Proto Man pointed at the downed Navi, "He might have information on the Dimensional Generator hidden somewhere in Den Tech."
"Got it," My friend followed the logic there, "We could also get information on WWW's secret base from him. Roll?"
Mayl had our antennae attached to Bomb Man's head, peering in to claim as much data as we could from him.
"The last chip data he had active was Anti Sword," I stated.
"It was a good call to use different chips on him, Lord Chaud," Proto Man said.
"This was because I observed how he fought offensively and defensively," His operator responded, "I simply used that knowledge to counter his strategies and use his own attacks against him."
Like detonating his bombs before he could use them. I didn't say anything, but that was really smart.
"Hey, there's some voice data on here," Mayl noticed, "Someone was instructing him."
"But he's a solo Navi," I added, "Maybe it was the WWW leader, Noble."
"For now, focus on the location of the generator," Chaud spoke without missing a beat, "We can stop the viruses and confiscate the generator."
"The generator is at…" Mayl trailed off before gasping in disbelief, "ACDC Elementary School?!"
"We used to go there!" I exclaimed, "How did it get put there?!"
"Doesn't matter, we're rolling out!" My operator took off with a sudden burst of energy, leaving Chaud with the unintentional pun.
"It won't matter…" Bomb Man regained consciousness, moving his eyes around. "WWW will win in the end! It has been winning so far."
"Be quiet, perp," Proto Man mouthed off at him, "You're in no position to talk. You lost this fight."
"So?" The Mohawk Navi coughed, "I'm still getting away with it… And I'll be back to take pride in my work."
Suddenly, Bomb Man's eyes started to glow red, and his body started to burst into pixels!
"What are you doing?!" Chaud shouted.
"Ha-ha! Why do you think I'm called Bomb Man?!" The WWW Navi laughed, "I'm a walking bomb! Once I blow up, a good chunk of this town will crumble! Think of the buildings that will fall to pieces!"
[BGM: Vile Battle, Mega Man Maverick Hunter X]
"Monster!" Chaud drew his sword again, but he was unsure what to do without Proto Man's guidance.
"Being a Navi is so much better than being human!" Bomb Man continued to taunt him, "We don't need to be kept down by morals or be ashamed of who we are! If we want to do something, we can do it, and we don't have to hide from so-called consequences!"
"You'll only delete yourself, you fool!"
"It's only temporary! WWW gave me the ability to respawn even if I'm destroyed! I'll be back! But you won't be!"
"Chaud, focus," Proto Man calmly told him, "He's still the overconfident Navi we defeated. His detonation signal is in him. Concentrate."
Chaud did just that, entering a stance with a bent knee. In his eyes, he sat a cursor searching for the signal coming from Bomb Man. After a few seconds of looking, the cursor homed in on one point.
"YAH!" With a sharp, forceful shout, Chaud made a swing with his sword, cutting off Bomb Man's Mohawk. This didn't cancel out his self-destruct sequence, but it dramatically decreased the effectiveness of the shock wave he wanted to generate.
"N-No!" He yelled, realizing what he brought on himself. "My blast! It was going to be beautiful!"
"How fitting, you've been hoist with your own petard," Chaud cracked as he waxed a line from a Shakespeare play, which literally means being blown up by your own bomb.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" And as Bomb Man blew up in typical fashion, his pixels scattered all around like a dust cloud until he disappeared.
"We did it," Chaud mumbled, "But SciLab is still in danger, as are is the highway."
"Chaud!" Mayl's voice rang in his ears, "I'm getting close to my school! Once I shut the generator down, get to SciLab immediately! Lan and Dex can't handle WWW alone!"
"I'll do just that!" He answered, keeping his sense of urgency with him. "I'll also try to call Mr. Famous again! I hope nothing bad happened to him!"
Mayl and I both knew that as capable as Lan was in this scenario, there's no way he can last against all of WWW's members, and that's my assuming they're all gonna be there. We had to hope he and Dex could hold them off, but miracles don't always happen when you need one.
That didn't stop me from hoping, personally. But a terrible event was going to happen the second we arrived, and I would be afraid for Lan and Mega Man's lives more than ever.
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Somewhere close to SciLab, inside a vehicle's computer…
"Get up, Bomb Man!" The booming voice of Stone Man yelled, "We're on!"
"Grr…" Bomb Man growled, "Did I get deleted?"
"You'll remember soon," Cut Man uttered, probably bitter about losing to a couple of girls. "But the leader wants us in SciLab right now. The blue complication's inside."
The three solo Navis found themselves jacking out of the computer and into a row of three Copy Bots neatly lined up in a green car's backseat. Once they started up, they got out one at a time, walking to the middle of the street.
They started up the generators in the robots, allowing their bodies to appear in the real world.
"HAAAAHHHH!" Stone Man roared, dropping his weighted arms on the road, cracking it apart!
"Good, let it all out!" Count Zap suddenly appeared out of the blue, flying above the other WWW Navis as C. F. Elec Man! "Let's go ahead and show the world our might!"
"Don't forget why we're all here," Yahoot, or rather, C. F. Magic Man reminded them, holding his hands in a praying position.
"We'll get it done," C. F. Color Woman yawned at him, standing on her elongated hands to smirk at the SciLab entrance, which had flames shooting out from the doors. "As long as that brat gets his! Hee-hee-hee-hee!"
CHAPTER 27 END