A/N: EDIT: Guess everyone was busy today...hardly any reviews. T_T
Apologies for my absence yesterday. Long story short, I got hurt. I'm...not in a good place right now as a result, but writing takes the edge off.
Looking forward to your feedback, it really would help...
Switching things up today by popular demand. Work has been...busy. Two jobs an' all, keep me running all over the place to say nothing of the weather disaster, which is part of the reason I got hurt in the first place.
Once again, my apologies. Can anyone see this? Hoping this chapter is visible to one and all, despite the site glitches.
Secondly, Sorry for the short length of the chapter, I'm burnt up and stressed out, can barely move after my fall because of my darn back. This also needed time to cook; now here we go!
Hope you enjoy!
As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes, or memes. Not a wit or a one! They're tributes to legends far greater than I. I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time. Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that. In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~! Here we go. And yes, obvious references are very obvious.
Get ready. This chapter's gonna HURT EVEN MORE.
I won't say why. You'll have to read and see now, won't you?
Also a tribute to a Dark Sonic comic I stumbled upon, but can't remember the name of for the life of me.
Because, simply put, Naruto goes full BROLY here. Yes, that one.
As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter~!
"Killing is a cycle. One that started long before Vander and Me.
And it will continue long after the two of us are gone. We build our own prisons. Bars forged of oaths, codes, commitments. Walls of self doubt and accepted limitation. We inhabit these cells, these identities, and call them us. I thought I could break free by eliminating those I deemed my jailors. But now I realize the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away...
Do you have the strength to do so? Will you choose that path? Have you had enough?
Or...perhaps...you're...
...just...still...
...too...
~?
What Have They Done to Us (Part II)
"WEAK!"
That cackling declaration thundered through the laboratory as Naruto took the fight to his enemy.
Sneering, he decked Jayce in the face, flinging the hammer-wielding warrior across the room and out of his way. Not missing a beat, he pivoted on one heel, kicking up sparks as he went, which in turn brought him face to face with Viktor who'd been mere moment's from ambushing him while his back was turned.
"Both of you." he scoffed, forehead slamming against his. "You think you know what strength is? No. You have no idea."
Viktor tried to counter him; tried to grab him again; tried to take yet more of his chakra.
Key word, that. Tried.
He did not succeed.
Batting his grasping hand aside, Naruto headbutted him and drove a rasengan into his torso; the jutsu ripped the so-called healer free from his feet and catapulted him across the room, bowling Jayce down yet again as he went. He ignored that one, casually stepping over his stunned form as he went. For all his pride and prattling, hammer-boy wasn't the real threat here.
"Still kicking?" scarlet chakra crackled across his blazing eyes as he beheld the down man's battered body. "Don't worry. You won't be for long...
His borrowed gauntlets felt light as a feather now; their once blue gemstones burned an angry baleful red, corrupted and corroded by Kurama's chakra. Or perhaps they were enhanced? He didn't know, he wasn't smart like that, fiddling with tech was always Jinx's thing, not his.
Regardless, the massive metal fists had become extensions of his wrath and will; he had but to think and they moved. His soul was on fire, burning with rage and hat, urging him to rip and tear, to lash out and destroy everyone and everything around him, but this time something was different. He wasn't drowning in it, wasn't lost, wasn't out of control; no, he was the one in control, and he used said control to keep himself leashed, refusing to manifest so much as a single tail of crimson chakra.
Without the gauntlets to focus Kurama's chakra into, this might have been a challenge. With them? Ha! The outcome was never in doubt.
Honestly, this was hardly even fun anymore.
Already he could feel his chakra returning, surging angrily in response to what had been taken from him. Viktor didn't know how to use it. Or perhaps he simply couldn't, as his body lacked the necessary chakra coils and the like. He tried to take more but he couldn't. Kurama was acid in his veins, boiling in his blood, fire in his soul.
It was like trying to drink an ocean through a straw; with no hope of success; you wouldn't succeed.
You'd just drown.
Bending, low he snatched the so-called healer up by the face, slammed him thrice into the wall to daze him-drawing a groan from his victim-and considered him for a moment.
"Nothing to say?" he hissed at him. "Not going to try and gaslight me again? Hmm? Gotta admit, you're sturdier than I thought you'd be. Is it because of the Arcane...?"
No answer. That wouldn't do. It wasn't any fun when they didn't scream.
Jayce groaned in the background. "Stop...
As if he had any right to say that.
"Why should I?" Naruto craned his neck back, wholly unamused. "I was just here for the gemstones; you two ambushed me. Not so fun when your victim fights back now, is it?"
Tutting softly, he whirled and dashed the Viktor's face into the wall again, denting his pale visage further.
That got a reaction of Jayce. The man hefted his hammer, blue light blazing within. "I SAID STOP!"
Naruto pivoted, brandishing Viktor's battered body between them as a shield.
"No."
Reveling in his startled cry, he proceeded to dash forward at the wall again and race up its length, dragging Viktor's ghastly visage across the solid surface as he went. Velocity and momentum did the heavy lifting for him, tearing a fearsome furrow in the metal as he shot toward the ceiling. An awful screeching sound arose in his ears, coupled with his victim's cries. To him they were the sweetest of music. Justice. Payback. Retribution for all Zaun -and by extension Jinx- had suffered all these years.
If only these two wonder boys hadn't meddled where they shouldn't.
If only Hextech didn't exist.
If only...!
Whirling, he kicked out with a snarl, hit the vaulted ceiling feet-first and tossed Viktor down at Jayce like a falling star.
To his credit, Piltover's golden boy got out of the way this time.
Viktor didn't have that luxury.
He slammed facefirst into the unyielding metal floor and nearly smashed through it to the vents below, leaving a decidedly human shaped impression therein.
For a moment, the metal plating held.
Right up until Naruto landed atop his back feet-first, smashing him through the floor.
Vaulting off his back before he could barrel down into the lower depths of the tower with him, he alighted seamlessly upon his right foot, stomped the other down and "reloaded" his gauntlets with a quick one-two punch, priming them with fresh chakra once more. The now-crimson hextech gems burned balefully within, like twin stars on the verge of going supernova. Their heat warmed him, lending his grin a crazed edge as he pivoted to face his remaining opponent.
Jayce balked back at him, eyes wide. "What are you...?"
He could've said so many things to him just then.
Made a snappy retort, ya know?
Instead, he smiled.
"You already know the answer." Stomping forward, he let his gauntlets hang loosely at his sides, grinning ear to ear. "I'm the culmination of all your sins, come home to roost. All your hopes. All your dreams. All your fears made manifest. And this?" he raised his gauntlet-clad arms to take in the laboratory around them, encompassing it all. "All of this? Everything that's about to happen?"
He thrust a metal finger at him.
"This is all your fault."
Jayce stepped back, a glimmer of fear in his eyes.
Silco would've called that checkmate.
Sevika, a triumph.
Jinx, madness.
For Naruto, it was none of those things, rather, he didn't care about them.
To him, Jayce was just another victim, someone else to kill.
With a smirk, he waded back into the fray, fists swinging.
(.0.0.0.)
They were losing.
They shouldn't be, but they were.
They had Hextech, and they had the numbers.
They'd known he was coming.
They'd prepared for this.
And yet they.
Could not.
Win.
Jayce spat blood as a metal fist decked him in the schnoz; a moment of inattention almost cost him an eye; he nearly blacked out then and there; it was only sheer willpower that kept him on his feet, and even that had begun to wane now. Warding his hammer before in a desperate gambit, he snapped off a frantic shot, forcing the blond before him to give ground, if only to avoid being caught in it..
The bolt of blue sizzled harmlessly against the wall, just past the crater in the floor.
Naruto glanced at it, bemused, then back to him, now. "Is that all?"
Viktor was alive down there, he knew he was, but he needed time to recover, time it didn't look like he'd get.
"Hey!" he shouted at him, stalling for time in the hopes that Viktor would soon return to the fight, "How about a handicap?"
Naruto craned his neck back, producing an audible crack. "Is that another word for coffin?"
He'd gone insane. Stark raving mad. Completely, utterly bonkers.
"Monster...
It was the wrong thing to say. In hindsight, Jayce wasn't quite sure why, only that it was.
Naruto went still.
Palmed his face with a gauntlet.
Without warning, he began to laugh at him.
It was a worrying sound, sharp and angry, filled with bitterness. A crimson eye peered out at him between those thick metal fingers, slitted iris regarding him with baleful intent.
"You've done it now, Jayce." His voice warped as continued to laugh, his pupils narrowing to mere pinpoints of existence. "You idiot. Me? A Monster? Really? REALLY? That's where you're taking this?"
Dread curdled in his gut as he braved his hammer in both hands. "What's so funny?"
"You." a gauntlet-clad finger rose, pointing his way almost lazily. "Look at yourself. Look around you." his other hand rose to indicate Viktor, digits clenching into a clanking fist. "Look at what your "friend" has become. You seriously think Mel would approve of any of this? Or your Mother? Of what you've done? No." he all but spat the last word, syllable thick with venomous bile. "They would hate it."
The words were a dagger in his heart. "Stop."
Naruto did not. "They would hate you."
His arms quivered. "I said stop!"
"If they saw the state of you right now...
"STOP SAYING THAT!"
Naruto did...
.
..
And then he twisted the proverbial knife.
...they would wish you'd never been born."
Because Mel already did, didn't she? He was an embarrassment to her. A mockery. Even now she couldn't contemplate why he always wanted more. He remembered the sad, pitying look she'd given him that day in the council chamber so long ago. And now, as he continued to forge more and more weapons. She didn't understand. He was just trying to keep Piltover safe. Did that make him a monster, too...?
He didn't like the answer.
Didn't want to see it, couldn't bear to look at it...at himself...!
A trembling hand delved into the pouch at his side, and plucked another Hextech gemstone from within.
Hefting his hammer, he slotted the second gem in against the first and overlcocked the trigger, causing it to crack open and blaze blue. "You think you know me?!"
"I do!" the feral grin that followed practically split his face. "I know you're type. You claim to be the hero, but at the end of the day, you're responsible for all of this! All of this," he swept a hand out, devastating a table, "ALL OF THIS! Is because of you! You're no better than Orochimaru!"
He didn't know the name, but he it felt like an insult. "You'll regret that...
"Struck a nerve, did I?"
Jayce swung at him. A fist swept up over his hammer and slugged him in the chest. He felt his heart skip a single, crucial beat as he skidded backward. Something cracked. He wasn't sure what and didn't have time to comprehend it; in came those awful metal fists, not to punch, but to grasp, seizing the haft of his hammer to drag him closer.
"Still think you're in the right here?"
Jayce tried to drag himself away; to no avail; his adversary's grasp was too strong, too eternal, and he wouldn't be denied.
In this contest of strength, he was the loser.
"You Piltover elite are all the same!" Naruto snapped at him, sharp teeth biting dangerously close to his face. "You think hoarding power means you'll have it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier!"
A spinning kick caught his ribs, tore him from his grasp and sent him slamming into a wall.
"And I refuse to let Jinx starve." Naruto lowered his leg and immediately used it to launch himself after him. "Or Isha! Or anyone!
By sheer luck he managed to twist aside from the flying punch that followed, but the shockwave alone nearly took his head off. Even as he evaded the first punch a second slammed into his back; the brief jolt of pain that followed paralyzed him for a brief moment, sending him crashing down onto his hands and knees. Against all odds, he managed to keep hold of his hammer.
It didn't save him.
Naruto was on him a moment later.
Blow after blow rained down on his shoulders, bearing him down to the floor.
"How does it feel, wonder boy?!" A metal fist barreled into his nose, mangling it. "To be deconstructed?" Stars burst before his vision as another blow stuck his face, fracturing something. "To be the victim!" All the while, the tirade continued, until he could no longer make heads or tails of what was harming him. "Now imagine that every damn day of your life!"
What followed was pure pain.
"Women who can't feed their children!"
Thud!
"Children choke on noxious fumes from the mines!"
Crunch!
Babies who starve in their cribs!
Slam!
"All while you posh Pilties never go without! I bet eat cake every day of your lives, and give no thought to those below you!"
Jayce recoiled. That's not-
A twisted blast of something slammed into Naruto's back, launching him away.
"Categorically untrue." Viktor dragged himself out the abyss in the floor a frown, leaning heavily upon his staff. "I'm from the Undercity...
"Good for you." Naruto kicked upright, unfazed, his voice returning to normal levels, yet still ringing with that eerie dissonance. "Name one good thing you've done for us in the last ten years."
Viktor opened his mouth-
"Not Piltover!" Naruto clamped a hand over it, hoisted him up and tossed him into Jayce, sending them both sprawling. "ZAUN!"
They crashed through a wall, tumbling out into an adjacent corridor. No guards greeted them. Right, they'd sent them away, Enforcers and all.
.
..
...maybe that was a bad idea
He looked to Viktor, still thoroughly dazed. "Are you alright...?"
"Do not worry about me!" his friend pushed him upright. "Occupy him for a moment! I'll stop him!"
That heartened him a little. It really was still Viktor in, they are after all. He could speak to him. He could reach him.
If the Hexcore could cure him to this extend...
Maybe they could bring such salvation to the whole world...
A crimson claw of ominous red light slashed out through the gap, forcing them to part lest they be mowed down on the spot.
"You don't have an answer for me, do you? Your silence speaks volumes" The belligerent blond swept a gauntlet-clad hand forward, fiery fingers trailing sparks as he went, that eerie scarlet shroud retracting into his hand with an ominous noise. "Maybe I oughta tear this tower down on your heads? Perhaps that would wake the two of you up from your so-called delusions.
He raised both hands over his head.
Jayce rushed him, calling what -he hoped!- was a bluff.
It was stupid, it was reckless, it was beyond foolish, he could already feel the charge in the air
Against all odds, he actually managed to hit him; his overcharged hammer dealt the blond a devastating blow, striking his collarbone before carrying on to snap his head aside. He heard the telltale crack of a broken neck, something he'd only ever heard once before in his life, and a rare look of surprise passed through the blond's dying eyes.
But only for a moment.
In the next, his reached up, grabbed his head, snapped his neck back into place, and spat in his face.
Blinded, Jayce reeled.
"Did you honestly think this was a good idea? Scream once for yes, hold your tongue for no. " The blond grabbed the hammer while his vision was obscured, dragged it over and down, then drove a knee up into his gut, blasting the air from his lungs in a shower of red light.
For an awful moment, the world lost all color.
He couldn't breathe. Air. He needed air!He doubled over, retching.
A fist caught his chi on the way down, denting the floor with his bruised face.
Even so, Jayce dragged himself upright. "Enough! I won't let you get away with this!"
"Get away with what?" His adversary scoffed and tossed Viktor away like a rag doll again before he could jump him, leaving his gauntlets steaming. "We already have what we needed. Its too late to stop us. All your precious ideals mean nothing!" The blond berserker righted himself with a grunt, set his shoulder and forced it back into place with an awful pop. "Nice hammer, pretty boy. Lets see if you can make a miracle happen TWICE."
He closed the distance in an instant; to which Jayce stepped in and swung with all his might.
A clawed hand caught his hammer, metal fingers squeezing ominously. "Guess not."
The hammer shattered in his grasp, leaving him clutching its ruined haft.
It didn't end there; a storm of shattered shards whipped toward his face.
Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion; he glimpsed his reflection in the massacred metal, watched it hurtle closer, his eyes bulging wide-
He couldn't move fast enough.
The world went dark.
And then.
Pain.
Jayce dropped to his knees with an agonized scream, clutching his ruined visage. He'd managed to close his eyes in time, but the right orb was gone; he could feel its absence, just as he couldn't see anything through it, only the awful pain as the ruined sclera wept blood.
No, no, no...this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening...!
Naruto leaned over him, blurry and indistinct, grinning from ear to ear. "Tell me, are you at all familiar with the concept of instantaneous airway collapse?"
Jayce choked out a gasp. "What are you talking about-
The blond punched him in the throat, leaving him to flail backward, choking horribly. Breathing became an awful effort, a horrid rasp he could barely sustain.
Viktor pounced onto his back while he was distracted, pale face wrought with sorrow. He latched onto the blond like a limpet, winding his arms up and around his shoulders while planting his feet between them both, the better to keep him from escaping."
"It didn't have to be this way." he planted his chin atop his shoulder, voice soft. "We could've worked together...
Naruto scoffed.
"You think you can handle my chakra?! Go on! Take it!" Rather than seek to escape like any sane person, he reached back and grasped tight the wrists that sought to drain him. "TAKE IT ALL!"
His body burned with awful red light and for an awful moment, Jayce glimpsed nine crimson tails in the gloom, a terrible creature beyond mortal comprehension. It loomed large before them, no, it saw them, and they were as ants to it. He recoiled, good eye blinking spots away from his vision and the vision vanished, leaving him struggling to comprehend what he'd been confronted with.
Viktor was worse off by far; he was at the epicenter of the blast, and, either unable or unwilling to release Naruto, found it all focused into him. He didn't so much burn as he did combust; his body burst into flame; causing him to pitch backward with a cry. What little skin he had left on his chest and arms up in the blaze, leaving him writhing on the floor, curling in on himself, gasping in agony.
Naruto placed a boot on his throat and drew his arm in tight, gauntlet clenched to end his life. "Goodnight."
Jayce tried to crawl forward, tried to save him...!
A howl rent the air, incredibly close.
Naruto paused, hands poised to deal the death blow. "Reinforcements? Really?"
Jayce shook his head, still struggling to breathe. "N-No...?"
Something shook the tower; an awful noise arose.
Down the hall, a door shuddered.
A clawed hand tore it apart.
Something came through.
Hunched forward on all fours, it looked vaguely humanoid, neither man nor beast, but some strange creature caught between the two, wreathed in wires and fur. An awful device pumped something into its back, filling the room with an ominous red glow. Its hulking body lumbered forward, slowly at first, then with purpose, scenting the air in search of...
.
..
...of what exactly? Food? Prey? The Beast didn't look natural.
Maybe if they didn't move it would leave them be...?
Naruto hissed out a breath. "What the hell...?"
Hell, yes, that was the word. Jayce agreed wholeheartedly. Even wretched and bleeding as he was, he couldn't quite quash the instinctive surge of fear he felt at the sight of this abomination. What manner of mad scientist would create such a creature, and more importantly why was it here?
Run. The thought hammered in his mind, louder than anything he'd ever known. Run, Run, run.
They couldn't fight this thing, couldn't face it, couldn't possibly survive. They had to-
Plink.
A drop of blood ran from his ruined eye and struck the floor.
The Beast froze, as though it had heard it somehow.
Its gaze locked onto him with intent.
Naruto took his boot from Viktor's throat, pivoted, and raised a gauntlet warily. "Nice doggy, good doggy...wanna treat?"
The Beast took one look at him and growled, hunching forward with intent. It was a standoff. Incredibly, neither seemed willing to attack first. Naruto dared a step forward and the Beast...it didn't flinch, to even imply that such a creature could would be the height of folly, but it did hesitate. Its eyes flicked, just for a moment, almost appearing human...
Jayce tried to speak, but all that emerged was a wretched whimper.
Alas, the Beast heard that, too, and it provided the catalyst.
Eyes of burning molten red narrowed to feral slits.
Naruto swore. "You idiot...!
The Beast lunged!
A/N: Part III of this arc next chapter, otherwise known as "all hell breaks loose~!"
As ever, we're following the Ember's Rule for this and other stories. That's no joke. Really, it isn't.
If folks don't like this...well, it will remain, but I'll not be able to continue it. Every bit of feedback helps. Reviews are the fuel which keeps me writing in these crazy times. With my tight schedule an' bouncing between two jobs I simply don't have time to write a story folks don't like. Without them, my inspiration cannot take wing and I can't write a word. So by all means, speak up!
As ever, reviews are my lifeblood, my fuel, my sustenance. Without them, I cannot write.
So In the Immortal Words of Atlas... ...Revieeeeew, Would You Kindly?
And enjoy the previews. References are strong here...
(Preview)
He's doing what, where?!"
Naruto met if halfway. "Not on my watch!"
They collided in a whirl of violence and smashed through a wall...and out into the void.
Together, Man and Beast tumbled out the tower and into Piltover below.
Hey, hey! Get your stinkin' mitts off him.
The Beast rounded on her. Pinned her to the wall.
A lone word rumbled past its lips.
It changed everything.
"Powder...?"
What the hell is that thing?!'
He slapped her hand aside.
"Wait! I think its...
He never heard her; because the Beast barreled into him, seized him by the face
"Don't. Touch. MY DAUGHTER."
"Oi! You're not the only monster here, pal.
His eyes gleamed red.
"Naruto, no! Don't!"
Silco ran a hand through his hair, dismayed and horrified. "What have they done to you, brother...?"
Vi doubled over, clutched her skull, and screamed. "Get out of my head!
"Black and white and gray, I don't know what to do with gray...
EDIT: Hey, you made it! Sorry for the lack of length. Still down with the sickness, as it were.
As ever, the Embers rule remains. If folks don't like this story...well, it will remain, but it won't be continued. With two jobs, and rent to pay, my free time is at an all time low. I'm lucky to have four hours to write a day. I can't afford to pen stories that no one enjoys. So by all means, speak up! Every bit of feedback matters here! Truly, it does! That's no joke!
Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work,
~Nz.
R ~!