AN: Graphic depictions of violence in this chapter too. Viewer discretion is advised.

Chapter 5 An Awful Fight

Peppy and Larry ran down the street. Larry made sure to be ready to activate his sonic cannon, and Peppy looked ready to ignite a fireball if the situation called for it. And, really, in a situation like this, one could never know. Things could go on without a hitch, or they could go to shit within no time at all. It never hurt to be prepared for anything and everything.

And Larry certainly was prepared. He and Peppy sprinted at a lightning-fast speed, with Larry's mechanical heart pumping. The image of the lady who had been shot stayed with him, and as such, he couldn't help but worry about the daughter. He knew nothing about her, not even what she looked like, and yet the thought of her winding up dead was so repugnant to him. They were going to find her as soon as possible. They had to.

Unfortunately for the two superheroes, they ran into a problem rather quickly. After about twenty minutes of running across Amber without stopping, Peppy came to a stop. Concerned, Larry turned to her, feeling a pang when he saw her putting her hand to her chest. Her breathing rate was speeding up, doubling every second. Larry took a careful step towards her as worry ensnared him.

"Peppy? Are you alright?"

Peppy nodded. "Just ran too…" she coughed, hacking up all the contents of both of her lungs. Larry cringed. He stood frozen, his guilt climbing immensely.

"Uh…" Oh goodness, now he had no idea what to say. He tried to say something, tried to force himself to speak. Forced words were better than no words in this situation, right? Unfortunately, no words, forced or otherwise, came to him. As such, he just stood there awkwardly.

At least, until Peppy gained her breath enough to speak. "Go… ahead… without me." She coughed some more. "We can't waste time."

The sense of urgency that Larry felt before was restored to him. "Of course. Hang tight Peppy; I'll be back in a little bit."

Without waiting to get confirmation from his partner, Larry turned around and broke out into a run again. In fact, he didn't just run; he decided that, in order to be as speedy as possible, he should fly down the street. He activated the rocket boosters in his feet, barreling down the track with speeds that would make banzai bills jealous. He turned on one of his x-ray vision mode, hoping that would show him where the shooter and the daughter were. He didn't see anything.

"Come on!" Sweat covered Larry as he bit his lip. His mind flashed back to the man, standing over his wife's bloody corpse while expressing an emotion that went beyond simple terror. Looking back on that face he made, Larry couldn't get over how… haunting it was. More than the blood, that look that encapsulated so many hurt and horrific emotions stained Larry's mind, and probably wouldn't go away from him even after months of therapy. He wanted to stop thinking about it, but trying to do so was like trying to stop breathing. At this point, it was at the forefront of his mind. It refused to leave him, stubbornly and wickedly refused to leave him.

Which was why he wasn't going to stop. He scanned the town, not even blinking as he searched for a sign that the criminals who kidnapped the daughter might be nearby. He didn't see anything at first, which… well, to call the emotion that Larry felt about this "frustration" would be a GROSS understatement. He felt so much pent-up negativity that it was starting to physically drain him. His mind felt exhausted, his heart felt exhausted, even his body felt like it was shutting down. It was a miracle that he didn't fall out of the sky. Or, at least it would've been if it wasn't for this feeling in Larry's mind. A feeling that told him to keep going, a feeling that told him to not take a single second to rest. A feeling that told him to not let anyone else feel the pain of loss.

Thankfully for the Koopaling, he eventually spotted what he was looking for. There were the thugs, tucked away in an alleyway between two dingy, filthy-looking buildings. In the arms of one criminal was a young girl, no older than five. The thug had his arm wrapped around her, specifically right over the top of her neck. And based on her pale face, breathing was a monumentally difficult task for her right now.

Larry didn't waste a single second. Switching his vision back to its regular setting, he descended upon the criminals. "HEY!" That thundering shriek made the criminals blink as they turned to him. As Larry got a good view of their faces for the first time, he gritted his teeth and gripped his hands into fists. "LET HER GO!"

The thugs exchanged looks before cackling. "No way, Captain Metal." The way they said that name was… it was just so CONDESCENDING! Did these guys even know what they were up against? Didn't they know that Larry could make life extremely difficult for them?

Snarling, Larry flew closer to him, lifting his right arm as it took the form of his signature weapon, the sonic cannon. "If you guys don't let that girl go right now, I'm gonna blast you to smithereens! Got that!"

The thug holding the whimpering girl just smirked. Out of his hammerspace, he pulled out a gun and pressed the barrel up against her head. She looked like she wanted to scream. Larry didn't blame her.

"Go away, Captain Metal! You ain't getting this girl back!" He visibly increased the pressure of the gun against the girl's head. By now, she was in tears, and Larry could physically feel the tension in the air. "If you move even an inch closer, I'm gonna pull the trigger!"

The crying girl, the ugly thugs laughing their assess off as a gun was pressed against a child's head… was there a more sickening sight in the world? Larry sweated more than ever before. As he held his sonic cannon out toward the thugs, he prayed. He prayed to every God he knew, hoping to appeal to someone's devine mercy. This… this was so close to ending badly, and it just couldn't.

"You… if you kill her, all of you are going down!" Larry yelled, doing his best to sound confident despite how shaken up he was on the inside. "I'll end you guys's game faster than you can process it! I'll destroy each and every one of you!"

The thugs just sneered. Larry didn't even know which emotion he should be feeling right now. He felt so many; fear, terror, anger, annoyance. But while he had an abundance of emotional reactions to this dilemma, the plans he had to get out of this dilemma were sorely lacking. He didn't even have one.

"I'm not kidding!" Larry exclaimed, hoping he could give off enough of an intimidation factor to get these numbskulls to quit. That was the only thing he had that resembled a plan; it HAD to work. "I can give you all an agonizing death! So put that girl down! Put her down right now and give her to me!"

A wicked gleam appeared in the eyes of the criminal holding the girl. It was unlike anything Larry had ever seen before, and he knew exactly what it meant. Deep down, instinctually, he knew exactly what the thug wanted to do for his next course of action.

BOOM!

A bullet shot through the girl's head, blowing it off. Larry gasped out loud. "NO!" He watched, frozen, as the thug dropped what was left of the girl's body and kicked it across the ground toward him.

"There. I put her down and gave her to you. Are you satisfied?"

The thugs all laughed as Larry stared at the girl. Scorching tears welled in his eyes. His heart beat in such a peculiar way, one that Larry hoped would stop. He couldn't take his eyes off the girl. He just couldn't. He tried to, but it was just so horrifying, so… wrong. Nothing that Larry had seen at any point in his life, whether it be in the form of a fictional horror movie or the scene with the woman the thugs shot earlier, compared to this atrocious sight. Nothing could top it in terms of awfulness. Nothing.

Ba bump. Ba bump.

"Oh, look at that sweet little boy!" One of the thugs sneered as he pointed towards Larry. "Little baby is gonna cry!"

"Don't cry, little guy!" One criminal laughed. "We gave you back the girl. You should be thrilled!"

Ba bump. Ba bump. A new emotion filled Larry. The edges of his vision grew red. He couldn't unclench his fists as he turned his attention away from the girl and toward her murderers. The way they laughed… they did not give a single shit. The way they patted each other on the backs… the way they looked so gleeful at what they had just done…

Ba bump. *Inhale* Ba bump, ba bump. *exhale.* Ba bump, ba bump.

Why? Why? WHY? WHY?!

"YAAH!" With a yell that would make a lion cower in fear, Larry descended on the thug who had shot the girl. The thug didn't even have time to react before Larry beat them to death. PUNCH, PUNCH, PUNCH! Blood seeped from his nose, and Larry didn't stop. Bones could be heard cracking under the weight of Larry's fists, but he still didn't stop. As tears streamed from his eyes, mixing with the blood of this criminal, Larry had only one real desire. To hurt. To destory. To kill.

"YOU!" PUNCH! "YOU!" PUNCH! "I HATE YOU!" He sliced at the throat with his claws. Blood stained his fingers, but he didn't care. "I HATE YOU SO MUCH!" THRASH, SLICE, RIP! He wasn't going to stop. Nothing could make him stop.

"Please," the criminal said in a weak whisper. "Please, stop it!"

No. Nothing was going to make Larry stop. This rotten world had enough rotten people in it. The thug who shot the girl, the thug who shot the wife, Francis. They didn't deserve to live. Why was it that people like this sick fuck got off scott free when people like Tec lost their lives in the most tragic way possible? How was that fair? HOW WAS THAT FAIR?

THRASH, SLICE, THWACK, RIP. Everything around Larry completely faded away. The other thugs were gone. The buildings that they were standing in between were gone. Even the criminal who Larry was killing was gone. All that was left was the emotion. The hate. The anger. The sadness. Larry wanted to kill all these emotions as much as he wanted to kill the thug, maybe even more so.

Thrash… slice… rip… thrash… slice… rip… Larry wasn't going to stop. The thug may be dead by now, but that didn't matter. Neither did the blood on his newly bought costume or his skin. Thrash. Slice. Rip. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing could matter anymore. Nothing would matter anymore.

"Larry? Larry!"

Larry barely heard Peppy yelling at him and running up to him. He raised one more bloodied hand to deal the final blow to this piece of shit mascaradeing as a koopa, but Peppy grabbed his wrist. He turned toward her, and when he saw her eyes…

When… when he saw her eyes…

"Larry, you need to stop!"

Larry stared into Peppy's eyes for a minute, all while tears welled up in his own. He looked back down at the thug. Or, rather, at the mauled corpse that used to be the thug. Larry began to shake. The tears fell from his eyes, splattering on the ground. Barely even thinking, he rose to his feet. He couldn't take his eyes off his handiwork.

"What have I done?" His shaking got worse. Now fully aware enough to see how much blood covered him, as well as the fact that the other thugs got so scared they all ran away… oh. Ohhh…

"Larry…"

Larry let out a sob. He hung his head, crying some more. This wasn't fair. None of this was fair. How could it be fair?

"Larry… we should probably get you back to Bowser's Castle."

Larry didn't even have the strength to object.