The Courier stared at the black-haired girl, no, Blake, as he felt his mind slowly be taken over by the Psycho in his system. Soon enough, he won't have control over his emotions or feelings anymore, as the intense sensation of aggression and violence will consume him, much like how the hate consumed Joshua Graham during the extermination of the White Legs.
He used Psycho sparingly even back at the Mojave, even after years of constant usage; he never built a tolerance to the drug. He won't be able to control himself if he takes it, but then again, he's not in the Mojave anymore.
Who's here to judge him anyways?
No one.
No one at all.
Blake stared down the man with a twinge of fear in her eyes, he knew of Adam, sure, any White Fang goon knew about him but her? How? Where?
She pulled back Gambol Shroud, transforming it back to its katana form as she assumed her combat position, ready to strike the man down in one fell swoop. The man had a manic grin on his face, he was breathing heavily and his glasses got dislodged as he shook with mirth.
The man laughed and Blake got a glimpse at his eyes, bloodshot, pupils dilated, it as if he's in pure ecstasy as he his fist gripped down on his weapon, a flagstaff, wooden with a gold eagle ornament on top. Scratches adorned the weapon, faint drops of dried blood stood out on the ornament clear as day.
The man swung the flagstaff around, also getting into combat positions, he mumbled something but Blake didn't hear it, he then yelled out, "COME ON PUSSYCAT! SHOW ME WHAT GOT ADAM SO RILED UP!"
Moving faster than she could react, her Aura barely activating as the flagstaff slammed into her, knocking her into the train car's wall the man laughed as he turned to Blake and dashed forwards again. She was ready this time, raising her katana to deflect the fast but predictable blow from the man.
The flagstaff slammed down on the katana's blade, Blake gritted her teeth as she felt the force slam down onto her arms, the man held the flagstaff there and leaned forward, eyes boring directly into her, as if he's studying her.
"You don't look like much…" the man started, his eyes twitching, "Why're you hiding your heritage? No wonder Adam's so pissed!"
Headbutting her, the man spun around and kicked her in the torso, taking a good chunk of Aura off of her as well, "Look here!" he opened his mouth to reveal a pair of short fangs, too short to be called fangs, "I have this! I'm proud of it! I show it! Why hide what I am? Why disguise who I am? They call me rabid, they call me a dog! Why should I listen to any of them?!"
The man continued, "You! You represent the thing I hate most! You didn't go through with the plan, the mission, the job! You got out at the last second! You betrayed Adam just like that! A snap! And you ran away!"
Blake didn't want to respond to the raving lunatic, but with every word that comes out of his mouth she wants to shut it up even more, "You ran! Ran! Ran! Ran away! Away from him! Away from the cause!" the man cackled and dashed at Blake again, jabbing her with the end of the flagstaff, the eagle ornament crashing into her Aura as she was pushed back from the force, "Scaredy-cat! You were scared! Afraid! Afraid of him! Afraid of what you would become!"
"I can see it in your eyes, child! You haven't taken a life yet haven't you?! Well…" the man glared at Blake, his face twisted into a manic grin, "Consider me to be your first!"
Blake blocked another swing of the flagstaff, but even when she timed the attack and parried it with Gambol Shroud, she still felt her Aura reduce from each hit, as if the man's strength was so monstrous, a single strait hit from his flagstaff would completely shatter her Aura.
She tried using her Semblance to attack the man but he seemed to see through each and every one of her clones, always hitting the correct one to knock her out of her shadow every time. Realizing this, she figured that using her Semblance would just be a waste of Aura as the man showed no reaction other than a slight surprise at the beginning to her clones.
Realizing this, Blake decided to go on the offensive, rather than blocking the hits; she evaded the flagstaff and went in for a stab, Gambol Shroud's blade flying directly towards his torso. The man looked surprise for a second before returning to his usual toothy smile, he laughed as he sidestepped Blake's stab and kneed her in the stomach. Even with Aura dampening the blow, it still hurt.
Before she could react or even land on the floor, the man clotheslined Blake with his arm, sending her to the end of the third train car, her head dangerously leaning off of the train. The man walked forward as Blake tried to sit back up, but the pain in her stomach made that difficult, she clutched onto her katana as she tried to stand up, using it as a cane.
The lunatic laughed before kicking Gambol Shroud out of her hand off of the train, sending her to the floor again, he leaned down, staring at her through his golden sunglasses, "In five minutes, this train will have reached its destination," he said slowly, different from how he was before, "You will not die here, not yet, not until later."
Blake watched as the man stood over her, he had his flagstaff already holstered, hanging off of his back as he stared down at Blake. She looked away before her Scroll buzzed and the voice of her team leader blared out, it was childish, high-pitched, and a bit annoying, "Blake! What happened? Where are you? Are you alright?"
Before she could reply, the man grabbed the scroll and stared at it, he then raised his left wrist up and held it side-by-side with the scroll, "Fascinating…" he mumbled before shattering the Scroll in half, he chucked it off the train too, "I think it's about time, don't you think so to?" he stared down at Blake, chuckling at her bewildered yet fearful face, "I'll be off, you get off this train by yourself, good luck!"
And in an instant, the man was gone, vanished, as if he were never there to begin with. Blake sat up clutching her stomach and saw that the train was about to crash into the dead end. So, with the rest of her Aura, she jumped out of the train and landed painfully on the still hot train tracks, she coughed as she tried to stand up; her legs wobbling as the pain in her torso intensified.
She watched as the train speeds off into the darkness, never before have she felt so helpless, especially against an opponent, she hadn't felt this way since that day on the train… with Adam…
The man shimmered back into view next to her, his invisibility must be his Semblance but why did he avoid her attacks instead of letting his Aura tank it? She turned to the man who stood there with a pleasant smile on his face, pleasant for him that is. He watched the train as if he's watching the birds, as if this was normal for him.
"Remember this moment well, child," he grinned at Blake, "Remember that you could've done something if you had stayed with Adam. Remember that you could've made a change in the White Fang. But you ran. You ran away from Adam. From Us."
"You will continue to run away, since that's just who you are, a coward," the man laughed before turning away, he then placed his hands behind his head and knelt down, "You will never amount to anything, child, you will always be a coward. A betrayer. A fool."
Blake furrowed her brows in frustration, the man continued, "Remember that this was all your fault, if you hadn't ran and stayed… maybe you could've changed the bull boy's mind."
She turned to where the man was facing and saw her team running towards her alongside Dr. Oobleck, but the first person to reach her was Ruby as she dashed forwards using her Semblance to tackle her into a hug.
Blake grunted in pain as Ruby unintentionally crashed into the place that the man had kicked her in.
Dr. Oobleck approached the kneeling man slowly with his weapon out, the thermos-turned-flamethrower pointed directly at the surrendering man, "What did you do?" he glanced at Blake, who looked pale and beaten before turning back to the man, "What have you done to her?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
An explosion then rocked the tunnel, the man smiled as he knelt there; dust was shook off of the old tunnel walls as a deafening boom reached the team's ears. At the end of the tunnel, where the train had crashed, was a bright flash, too bright, enough to blind someone standing too close.
When the light subsided, what remained was a slowly rising mushroom cloud before that too dissipated, and what was left was a large hole blown into one of the districts of Vale. Dr. Oobleck turned back to the man and snarled, "Yang! Knock this man out! Weiss, Ruby, follow me now!"
"Professor," Blake wheezed out, still being held up by Ruby, "What about me?"
"You will stay with Yang, make sure that man doesn't try anything until we turn him in," Dr. Oobleck had never looked so serious before, "Do it, quickly!"
Blake watched as Yang raised her fist up and punched the man in the head, he fell rather anti-climatically onto the train tracks. Like a sack of potatoes, "Really Blake? This is who you struggled with?" Yang teased, her eyebrows wiggling as she kicked at the body of the unconscious man, "Tsk tsk, I thought you'd be stronger after all of those spars with Goodwitch."
Blake watched as the man's flagstaff, beret, sunglasses, and even duster vanish as soon as his body hit the floor, but that can't be, she thought his Semblance was that moment of invisibility she showed earlier, "Aww, and here I thought I'd get a sick duster! It even had the number twenty-one on it!"
Blake chuckled weakly, still clutching onto her stomach as she watched Yang hauled the unconscious man up onto her shoulder, "Come on Blakey! We gotta turn this guy in and help Professor Oobleck with the Grimm!"
"Doctor."
"Yeah, Doctor, sure," Yang rolled her eyes as she quickly ran off to where Dr. Oobleck had taken Weiss and Ruby, Blake followed quickly behind as well.
During the run back to Vale, she'd sometimes stop and turn around, contemplating about whether or not to go and retrieve her weapon after that lunatic kicked it out of her hand, she shook her head, now was not the time to run that far back just to get a weapon, there are more pressing matters at hand currently.
The Courier stayed very still during that entire interaction, he wasn't knocked out yet, not completely, hell, he don't if he can even be knocked out in the first place! Artificial brain and implants and whatnot.
Thankfully, in all of his years of wandering the Mojave, he had picked up an invaluable skill in the art of stealth and infiltration, and that is playing dead. Even after being hauled onto the shoulder of the surprisingly strong Atomic Wrangler Prostitute-dressed young woman. He held off the urge to laugh at what happened back there on the train.
He really needs to lay off the Psycho, maybe substitute it out with some Buffout? Ha! No, he mentally shook his head, at least Psycho don't taste like solid tablets of smelling salts and wonderglue.
Although he had learned a recipe called 'Slasher' from the Khans, something like Psycho but more violent, no, no he probably shouldn't take anything that even remotely resembled Psycho from now on. He then remembered a conversation he had with a Khan from way back when.
'Here," the Khan had said, handing him a Jet inhaler, he looked at it but before he could ask, the Khan just said, 'It's called Rocket, that'll really fuck you up for the next week or so.'
Maybe he should've heeded that Khan's advice, because when he took a sniff of that Rocket he was only cloud nine for the next one hundred and sixty eight hours. When he eventually recovered, he realized that he had almost beaten a Yao Guai bare-fisted.
He looked down and realized that he was bare-naked as well.
He still had some Rocket on him, of course, after taking so much of it Rocket had turned into just a stronger Jet for him to use during particularly hazardous adventures.
Well, no time to reminisce about drugs now, he's supposed to be knocked out!
I gotta be honest, 's chapter publishing system is jank as fuck.
Sometimes the chapters don't even publish! Like what the heck man?
Anyways, I fucking hate cliffhangers so here's the fight.
Here's a question of the day, Fixer or Addictol? Which one is the correct anti-addiction medicine?
Fixer also looks like a box of Mentats but blue so I like Fixer more.
Addictol just looks like a Jet inhaler.