Remnants of the Earth
SPACE STATIONS => The Libra => Topic started by: Brisinger987 on June 09, 2014, 01:56:23 pm
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Mirike stood in line at the coffee shop, waiting patiently to be served, a crowd of bustling people wandering about her, and she felt exceptionally bored.
The Aegis was docked on the other side of the station, with it's crew either conducting repairs, or hunting for the docking records of the Shiroisakura. That was the ship Arimus had ordered them all to hunt for. And Arimus' word was law, even if Marake was the official head of family. Arimus was Marake's idol, and she did whatever he told her to do.
So naturally, when Arimus ordered it, Marake made it the new prime directive.
But Mirike was taking shore leave while the holes from the last meteor shower were plugged, and something felt odd as she stood waiting for coffee. Almost as if she was being watched, stared at, and suddenly as she realised how she felt, her insecurities flared and she frowned.
She tried to switch her attentions, looking for the people Arimus had told her of in case she had the chance to take down a target. No security force would dare board the Aegis, so it was a safe place to hide, and Arimus was literally invincible. Arimus and Marake were a fearsome pair, capable of breaking and entering literally anywhere.
She ordered her usual, a cappuccino, and waited for the barista to arrive with her drink, before paying and turning to leave, still wary that she could feel eyes upon her. It discomforted her more than anything, being stared at. She felt embarrassed, like she was stood naked, knowing that in truth, she was showing possibly the least amount of flesh at the coffee shop.
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With a lazy yawn, Aki took a drink from his coffee, closer to a mix of cream and sugar than actual coffee. He put the newspaper the previous occupant of the table he sat at left there, and stretched his legs under the table. What a nice lazy morning. The price of the coffee was pretty low, and most tables were empty. People were going to work - very few stayed. And none of them paid attention to what looked like a completely ordinary teenager.
His eyes scanned all the people that still waited for their coffee, when he spotted a green-haired woman in a rather tightly fitting suit.
He almost spat the coffee out. That body! His eyes widened, and his hands, still holding the cup, sank down. Just wow. He was amazed. That body...
He really couldn't help but stare. Her figure, the proportion and shape, was just perfect in his eyes. Aki has never been in love in his life, but he might just as well have fallen in it right now - and his eyes were completely glued to that girl all along.
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Mirike took a sip of her coffee, looking around and seeing who was looking at her.
She put some more hot water in her coffee and walked over subtly.
"Are you staring at me for any particular reason, or are you naturally a creep? It's rude to stare, weirdo."
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"Staring at you?" Aki burst out when the woman noticed him. Though, the fact that he was still staring at her gave him away. He kept his composure, and forced his eyes shut, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Why would I stare at you? What gives you the idea that I was staring at you, even? It's quite rude to go at people and accuse them of staring at you, too! And so is calling others creeps and weirdos!" he responded, silently, but visibly upset. Some crazy part of him was glad to get her attention even then...
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"Ugh, I can't believe how many perverts there are. It should be a crime to let your kind wander around freely..." Mirike turned away, deciding the money for her coffee was better spent throwing it at him.
And so, she uncapped her coffee, too a sip, gave him one long, distasteful look, and poured the coffee over him, shaking it to make sure he knew exactly what she thought of him.
Some part of her said he was a hot seventeen year old guy with a good choice of coffee stand. Another part of her told her that he was just that, a typical, arrogant, cocky seventeen year old guy.
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At first, Aki almost fell back on his chair, immediately pushing himself back when the first few drops of coffee landed on his hair. Though, free coffee... He quickly grabbed his own cup and put it underneath the stream from hers, refilling it, and wiping the coffee off his hair with the sleeve on his other arm.
"Are you crazy? It should be a crime to let mad cows like you wander around freely." he replied angrily, barring his teeth at her, and abruptly standing up. The now full cup of coffee thudded as he put it back, and crossed his arms on his chest.
"Besides, I can stare at whatever I want! It's not like I was touching your ass!" he hissed at her, giving her a glance as upset as possible. What was she thinking? At this rate, he was dangerously close to kicking her. His pride was nobody's little toy. After all, it was the only thing no one could take away from him.
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"Oh, a mad cow am I? I'm not the pathetic little teenager who has nothing better to do than sit and stare at things that, quite frankly, are way out of your league." Mirike stuck her nose up and began to look down it at him, clearly unhappy.
"You know, looking at you, I bet you wouldn't know what to do with a naked girl. You'd just sit there staring, like the blank minded idiot you are." She snarled, starting to get really annoyed with this guy.
"And while we're at it, shouldn't you be, I don't know, in school? It's no wonder there are so many uneducated idiots. Half of them don't show up."
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"Talking about who should be where, shouldn't you be at the psychiatric ward you ran away from?" he snapped back. "They should really raise the security in those if mad cows like you run away from them!" His tongue was off the leash, and he was really getting fiery upset right here. This woman drove two separate parts of him crazy in two completely different ways...
She was beautiful, oh yeah, but she was mean. He was tempted to flick all the coffee straight at that green hair of hers.
"Besides, I wouldn't wonder if you wouldn't know what to do with a guy even if you got one naked, either. With that attitude of yours, no guy with a sane brain would ever go for you."
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"Ha, you have such a wide variety of insults, clearly. Or maybe that one is just your favourite." She smirked, somewhat enjoying this exchange, before he spoke about not being able to get a guy.
That comment struck home, and instantly she lashed out, slapping him.
"YOU SHUT THE HELL UP WHEN PEOPLE BETTER THAN YOU SPEAK! WORTHLESS STREET TRASH." Her voice was raised, and a slight shimmer was visible as a vector knocked a coffee onto the young boy, while one hovered over his face, ready to plunge if he made one more comment about her attractiveness.
"Now, I dare you to insult me again... Just see how quickly I can tear you into tiny pieces."
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Once again, Aki almost fell over on his chair. Now he was completely covered in coffee, he could still feel her hand on his cheek, and was completely publicly humiliated. His blood was boiling in his veins. Oh, she didn't...
The newspaper flicked up into the air, flicking into her face, and Aki sled under the table, aiming his foot between her legs to kick her up. The strength he put into the kick was beyond what would one expect from a seventeen-years-old boy, and he moved faster, too. She just pissed him off. Majorly.
"Who said you're better than me?" he hissed at her, slipping behind her and climbing back to his feet rather quickly. He cracked his knuckles and frowned at her. Who did this girl think she was? "What would make you better than me? Big front, or big backside?"
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Mirike wasn't expecting him to fight back, and for a minute was caught off guard.
"MAYBE YOU NEED TO LEARN TO RESPECT THOSE WHO COULD EASILY KILL YOU!" The onslaught of vectors she unleashed was astounding, as she aimed the invisible tendrils first to strike upwards with blunt force, then to batter him around in the air rapidly, trying to beat him up before he even touched the floor.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. YOU WILL SUBMIT!"
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Aki's eyes widened as he saw the bottom of his coat getting cut up. He launched himself up in the air to escape whatever was attacking him, quickly figuring out that it's the girl's work. He managed to escape with nothing more but a slash on his calf, rather shallow, and not worrying him in the slightest, before he landed on the table he sat on before.
He grabbed the newspapers, and jumped up again, aiming both of his feet straight at her face in a quick and powerful kick. If that would land, he'd flip himself over, hit her into the back of the head with the newspaper, and land a good few meters behind.
The table screeched on the floor as he leaped up, and a few people jumped out of their seats. "Someone call the police!" a voice gasped.
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The table suddenly split in half, and as the newspapers flew towards her, both got shredded.
If one looked closely, the lines of the thin, tentacle-like vectors were visible, shimmering in a swirling orb around her, ready to dice anything more that got thrown at her.
"Dammit." She muttered as she looked for the caller, keeping the shredding orb up.
"Fine. I'll just have to kill you befo-" She screamed as an arc of electricity jumped to her arm, and a nearby police had run to the scene, armed with stun pistol.
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Growling at the girl after having his arms almost sliced off when he protected his head during the flip, Akira was completely ready to flick whatever got to his hands at her. Was. The moment he reached to the closest table to grab something, he screamed, collapsing onto the floor and splattering blood around his arms, stretched before himself. His back arched after a current of electricity passed through his body and stunned him.
A policeman grabbed him by the hood, and pulled him up, carefully, but strictly handling the boy, locking his hands in handcuffs. One of the others ran to do the same with the girl, while Aki's 'captor' held him in check by the neck.
How brutal! Was that truly necessary? By the neck?
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The shimmering of the edge of a vector was a small flash that signalled the severance of a man's arm from his body, and the cutting of a table in half.
Mirike hit the floor, groaning in agony. The electric shock hurt, and the natural reaction had been to hit back at her new assailant, only, she hadn't intended to cut his arm off.
Soon after she landed, the shimmering of the vectors disappeared, leaving no trace they were there, and no indication that it was her.
"Bastards..."
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The policeman screamed, and was immediately replaced by two, carefully approaching Mirike. The officer that was clearly leading them kept his distance even then, to avoid being kicked or bitten by either of them. "You are under arrest for public attacking and violence. May I see your identification, please?" he exclaimed.
Aki growled, struggling to reach his pockets with his chained hands. He managed to pull his wallet out, and drop it onto the floor in front of the policeman. It was rather flat and rugged, appearing like Aki had it for a nice few years already, and mostly devoid of money. The policeman picked it up, and searched through it, finding mostly useless scraps of paper and one - how surprising for someone like Aki - identity card. Fake, off course... Identifying him as a Libran, though.
The man gave him a harsh look. The card said that he was 19.
"Akio Ishimaru?" he asked. Aki nodded, gritting his teeth as the hand at his neck gripped him tighter, and arching his back in pain at the motion. It was just a little fight, not like he murdered someone! Was this all really necessary?
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As the vectors had taken the majority of the shock, Mirike was on her feet before they could get to her, and she let loose with her vectors, using pinpoint precision to cut away their protection and break their guns.
Then, in something she hadn't anticipated, she felt a taser make contact with her back, and she cried out, falling to her knees, unable to move at all now as the electric current flowed.
"Dam-it... Ar-rgh."
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Sighing at the fuss the green-haired girl made, Aki submitted to the policeman, receiving a somewhat less tight grip by his spine in exchange. "You know what's right, don't you?" the man above him asked, received a grimace with barred teeth that looked rather hostile. "You're breaking my neck! What do you want off me?" Aki burst out. The man frowned, and pulled his head up a little higher.
In the meantime, the couple of policemen attempting to hold down Mirike decided it was pointless to try to restrain her. "Miss, you are only making your possible sentence longer by attacking a police officer." their leader spoke to her again, and instructed the rest of the company to hold them both up, keeping a tazer pressed onto their skin.
Aki was forcefully dragging up to his feet and pushed forwards. Great. Just got arrested.
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Mirike decided to submit, and instead, pressed a hidden button on her costume, that would transmit her gps, and call for assistance. Then, she decided to make the police officers lives harder, and broke a capsule between her teeth. This was her trick, to make the police officers angry.
This capsule would convert a significant, calculated proportion of sugar in her body into alcohol, and essentially, would render her drunk in a few minutes. She only carried it in case she wanted to get away with being herself where it was unacceptable.
And sure enough, she felt it kicking in, and began to feel more drunk, as she was escorted back to the nearest police station, she began to stumble and fall, and struggled to walk in a straight line.
"Hey... Hic. Why don't we all go grab kebab? Do you like kebab officer?"
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As he was dragged into the police station, Aki rolled his eyes at the girl's antics. She was acting drunk most likely on purpose... Ah, whatever. His concerns were gone for a time.
A time. Until they were both taken to a single, secured and most-weaponry-proof cell. The policemen pushed both of them in. "For the next six hours at most, you will have to remain in the cell before a higher-positioned officer will collect evidence. After that, you will be questioned. You'll probably get food soon." one of them informed them, and closed the door. It clicked, indicating that it got locked.
The whole room was stark white. Not a piece of furniture, and the walls were made secure against the possibility of escape or self-harm of whoever was held in.
Akira released a deep sigh, and dropped down in the corner of the cell. He was sure that it most likely also negated most magical abilities as this stuff used to... Dammit. Six hours with this psycho cow? No, thanks. He'll have to get a new coat after getting the sleeves of this one cut up so bad.
As he shifted into a more comfortable position - as much as it was possible - his leg, bent under him, left a smear of half-dried blood on the floor. He flicked himself after sighting it, but didn't say a word.
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The vectors around Mirike shimmered, and she smirked as they entered the cell, the officers finally taking her breathalyser and determining that she was drunk. Once she was in the cell, she took control of her mind, and popped the second capsule, which would bring her back down.
It was her idea. Her master plan for situations like this. There was no proof that she had ever had the capsules, and she had taken a breathalyser. She was off the hook.
She paced for a minute, the vectors invisible against the gleaming light of the white cell, and she turned to Aki.
"So, your name is Akio. You sound like you would have a great obituary."
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He gave her a frown. "Whatever your name is, I bet it'd make a better one, especially if they included a picture." he muttered, closing his eyes, and turning his head away. Wish he'd be in a different cell...
"If you attempt a murder here, you won't get away. We're alone here, and there are cameras. Can't you see them? You'd be officially considered a criminal." he exclaimed then, pointing one finger at the corner of the room. The camera in it was quite visible.
He opened his eyes again, and turned to the girl. "If you try to kill me, things will get ugly." he warned her, in a surprisingly cold and emotionless voice.
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"Kill you? HA!" Mirike laughed as she sat down, using her vectors to examine the wound she had inflicted.
"It was just becoming a good fight. Now let me see what damage I did." Mirike frowned as she looked at the wound. It wasn't major, and she decided there was no point treating him with bandages, as the wound wasn't deep enough.
"But you need to learn to not stare. I get enough shit about the way I look. I don't need shit from some teenager too." She sighed, feeling the urge for pizza all of a sudden. She really wanted pizza.
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Aki had to bite his tongue as she didn't attempt to attack him, and pulled his leg back from her, still somewhat distrustful. Maybe she wasn't that horrible, but still...
"Hey, you should feel honored that your front and your behind is majestic enough to get stared at." he uttered, shrugging. "Nature doesn't gift everyone like that." A mischievous smirk appeared on his lips, and his turquoise eyes flashed.
"If you get stared at, it's most likely cause your suit is so tight it shows all of you... I'd suggest, you know, wearing something that isn't skin-tight." he added then, waving his hand at her. "And I need to get a new coat..." He rolled his eyes over, and tugged at the torn sleeve. "This one is in scraps!" he commented with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
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Mirike listened to his comment, before her brain processed it, and she blushed, looking away from him. This kid thought she was attractive, and that shocked her a bit.
"No-one's ever said my looks were a gift. I've certainly never thought of myself that way..." She mumbled to herself, only shooting fleeting glances at Aki. She felt nervous now, hearing that this kid was actually attracted to her. That this kid found her even remotely appealing.
She finally worked up the courage to speak, but found herself unsure of what to say.
"What about my hair?"
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Aki narrowed his eyes. She seemed kind of flustered after being complimented, even though it was such a strange compliment. And her hair? Well...
"Your hair is really weird." he concluded then, and a slightly mischievous smirk appeared on his lips.
"I like that."
It had a nice, unusual color. Whether it was dyed or not didn't really matter, but its appearance matched her face rather well. Aki has always been attracted to the unconventional and unusual...
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She hugged her knees, feeling rather shy now, and when he complemented her hair, she shot him a soft glance (http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3090/2584225940_455fc774d2_z.jpg?zz=1), realising he wasn't as bad as she had thought. Maybe she had overreacted slightly to his comments.
"Thank you..." She smiled, using her vectors to begin threading his coat back together, taking the frayed ends and tears and sewing them back together.
"There you go. Repaired the damage, for the most part."
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Surprised at the unexpected favor, Aki looked down at the sleeves of his coat, and carefully studied them. Really, the holes were no longer there... "Thanks." he mumbled, shooting a short glance in her direction, before putting his arms down on his half-bent knees.
"I wonder how much time has passed by now... It feels like an eternity, but this way, it could have been three hours just as well as it could have been three minutes." he sighed, looking at the door.
A part of his mind started awakening. It was like a distant voice, screaming deep in the caverns of his thoughts, yearning to be set free on a rampage.
Let me out! Get out of here! Let me out, and I'll get you out! Be strong, let me out! I'm stronger than you... So let me out! Let me take over, and I'll get you out of here!
He shook his head, raking his hands through his hair. Silence wasn't doing him any good.
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Mirike sat there for a minute, contemplating the implications of what this boy had said, her emotions growing more unstable by the second.
They had only been in the room a grand total of three minutes, but already she had seen this boy show that she was likable, something she had never felt before.
Then, soon enough, she was crying (http://paralleled.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/cc_forgiveness.jpg), unable to control her emotions any longer. she let the tears strem down her face, and she turned to him, deciding to tell.
"You're the first guy that's ever told me my hair is nice... Ever... And you're the first guy that's ever told me that I'm attractive..."
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"Ah... Don't cry." Aki sighed, shifting over towards her, and bending over his legs to look her straight in the eyes. "I only said what I thought. If no one ever told you... Well... Maybe they lied." he shrugged, softly putting one hand under her chin to lift it up.
"From the little I know about people - after all, I'm not that old - they don't always say what they think. I never asked anyone why, but that's how it is." he said in a silent voice. "And if it will make you any happier, no one has ever called me likable, either. So you're still better off."
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She locked eyes with him for a minute, her eyes misty with tears, and a solitary teardrop rolled into Aki's hand.
And on pure impulse, she gently pulled him towards her, using her vectors as a rather subtle encouragement.
And suddenly, her lips locked with his. She had no idea of what had come over her, all she knew was that she hadn't intended to kiss him.
Her thoughts didn't feel like her own, and her actions matched nothing she had done before.
"You're more likable than most..."
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For a moment, Aki was completely knocked off. He wasn't sure what to do, never having kissed a girl before, but eventually, he just let her lead him, and managed to pull off a decent kiss, letting her press her lips against his. If he could blush, he most likely would, but fortunately, he didn't really possess that ability.
"Uh... Thanks..." he muttered, looking away, partly still in shock and partly in embarrassment for not knowing what to do.
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She took a few seconds to come round, but she came to her senses, not quite remembering what had happened.
A sharp slap resounded through the room as she slapped him for his perceived actions.
In her eyes, he had kissed her and she was innocent, and had every right to slap. What she didn't quite grasp was how, why, when, and the truth.
"How dare you kiss me?!"
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Narrowing his eyes after receiving an unjustified slap, Aki gave her a cold, detached face. "I didn't kiss you. You did it first. I wouldn't even think about kissing a girl." he replied, crossing his arms at his chest.
"All I did was tell you not to cry." If this what he gets for trying to be nice... No, thank you!
He pulled himself away once again, and took his position with crossed legs in the corner once again.
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"I kissed you?..." Mirike looked at her vectors, and she set them to curl round her in an orb, the new invisible forcefield turning black very suddenly.
"I didn't mean to... I don't... I can't..." She began sobbing, the sound audible through the shield.
"I don't know what I was thinking... I'm an idiot..." The black vectors were hovering above their master, ready to cut the first person to approach in half.
Then, as if by fate, the door opened, but no guards came in. Instead, Seluku, his golden hair in it's usual fashion, stepped through the door. He smirked as he looked at Aki, and saw the black orb round Mirike.
"My, my, my. What did you do to do this? Impressive."
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Another figure stepped from behind the blonde man. Tsuruki, grinning in a rather provocative manner, shoved his brother aside, and gave Mirike a malicious glare, reveling in the poor situation she was in. "What's up, Grasshead? What did you do to piss the cops off that bad?" he asked.
Aki instinctively reduced his movement to the bare minimum, but prepared to attack if the two men would attempt to do something. He didn't like the look of either of them - neither the smug, nor the rude one gave out an air of good intentions, and he had enough intuition and common sense to figure that out. Besides, they both resembled the girl.
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Mirike's sobbing was reduced to nothingness as her brothers arrived, and she cleared her throat, eyes and face, glad she never wore makeup.
"You two. I wish they had sent Marake, or anyone really. Anyone except you two." Mirike stood up, her vectors becoming transparent again.
Seluku projected an image into Aki's mind, showing him his fears, and watching it unravel in his mind.
"You are truly interesting. What on earth did you do to make her cry?"
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Aki's eyes widened at the sight that unraveled before them. It was surreal, and yet he knew far too well just what it was. The world went into a strange spectrum, nearly monochrome, but extremely sharp. And he knew the surges of power in him, too, threatening to rip his own self into pieces.
It was almost like real, and yet he knew by a distant part of his sane mind that it wasn't.
There was no trigger to launch it now, and he remained in his true conscience, but everything else was just like always.
Tsuruki frowned at the kid, shaking in the corner. He saw how Aki bent forwards, pressing his forearms to his stomach and chest. Off course... "Seluku, you bastard, why the f*** did you have to do that again? We're just gonna get chased!" he growled at his brother, stepping near Akira to examine what was happening with him.
However, when he pushed his chin up with the tip of his boot, the sight scared him. Aki's skin was paper-pale, but his irises turned yellow from their usual blue, and they were surrounded by a black void instead of whites. Even his dark hair started to turn white.
"Leave me..." Aki growled, turning his head up to face Tsuruki, barring his teeth. The Velorak frowned. "Move yo ass, Grasshead. Something is wrong with this guy!" he called out over his shoulder.
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Seluku grinned as he watched the images, until Tsuruki broke the peace.
"Oh come on Tsu, it's only a bit of fun..." He watched, content with his work, until he saw what the boy was doing.
"Yes, let's leave." Seluku knelt down, and placed his hand on the boy's head, activating his paralyzing touch, the purple electricity arcing between his fingers.
The paralysis would leave Aki completely limp for a good 10-15 minutes, no matter how strong he was.
In Mirike's mind, this was unsure territory for her. The boy hadn't been like this against her. Whatever Seluku had done had clearly hit home.
"Seluku, you goddamn idiot. Come on, let's go."
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Tsuruki moved over to pick Mirike up and carry her out, scoffing at his brother. "You're f***ed up, Seluku. If you want to torture someone, do it by hands like a man." he commented on him, but the boy on the floor got his attention once again.
By then, all of Aki was completely white, even his coat, except for those eyes. He was hardly moving, but apparently he didn't get completely paralyzed.
"I said... Leave... Or I'll kill you!" he growled, his voice now completely different. It resembled a beast of some kind rather than a boy.
Tsuruki instinctively made a step back. He could sense that something was wrong...
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Seluku slumped to the floor, releasing a small grunt as he went completely limp.
"Dammit!" Mirike prepared her vectors, and literally threw Seluku out of the way.
"What the hell are you?! Some kind of demon? An alien? What are you?" Mirike prepared to fight this thing, regardless of what it could do.
"Wake up Seluku..."
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Aki, still shaking, raised himself to his elbows and knees. Fragments of something that could have been a horned white helmet started forming on his head. Even Tsuruki's eyes widened, and he grabbed Mirike by the shoulder, noticing how the ground beneath the boy's hand started disintegrating.
"I said GET THE F*** OUT!" he shouted, extending the other arm into the space. His fist clenched, and he pulled it back, creating a rip in the space. There was a hole in the middle of the air, its edges fluctuating and constantly changing like flames.
"Grab Seluku and get into it NOW! I'll deal with this!"
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Mirike's entire attitude changed, and in a flurry of now black vectors, she hit Seluku through the portal, before she turned and got ready to fight.
"I've seen this boy fight before, I can help..." Mirike's vectors turned invisible again, allowing her to make them sharper and longer.
"Or you can jump through the portal as well."
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Tsuruki growled, reaching under his leather jacket to pull out two thick hunting knives. "You look like shit, Grasshead. Go home. I'll deal with it." he growled.
Aki's form finally stopped changing. He resembled his real self only a little, completely white, with claws for hands and those scary horns on his flowing white hair... He reached back with one hand, creating a hole in the wall behind himself, and ripped a piece of it off.
Somewhere in the back, the sound of an alarm could be heard.
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"Don't. Call me. GRASSHEAD! I order you to go through that portal, as second in command, I order you." Mirike wrapped Aki in a complex mesh of vectors, stepping backwards towards the portal, making the vectors clear again.
"Go, go through! Or I will leave you to die here!"
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Tsuruki growled at her, and grabbed her by the shoulder in an attempt to force her through the portal, running through himself. Something about the energy, streaming from the white thing, was disrupting him. He didn't know if he can keep the portal up much longer at that...
Aki didn't seem like he was scared, or even surprised by the vectors. His yellow eyes studied them... Till he clenched one hand around one. Uncut, he attempted to push it away from himself.
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As Mirike went to grab Aki with the vector, Tsuruki pulled her, and a resounding sound leapt from her, as if her arm had just been pulled off. She screamed in agony, and blood suddenly stained her clothes as the vector was pulled out of her back, leaving her with a long, thin, deep cut where the vector used to be.
The clear tendril turned black, before crumbling into ash, and Seluku began to wake up. He saw the creature behind Mirike and Tsuruki, and suddenly pulled out a handgun, firing at it.
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The bullets did little to harm Aki. They left a few shallow scratches on his skin, a few holes in his coat, and simply bounced off.
He hissed at them. "I told you... To leave." he spoke to them. All of a sudden he stepped forth, making a long motion with his right hand, as if to slice the air across. His claws left sparks of black in it, forming a thick crescent of energy, which came whirling at the three.
Tsuruki instinctively pushed them back, opening a vortex to let the strike pass somewhere else. It didn't open soon enough, and only consumed a part of the energy. The rest was caught by his left shoulder.
The thick leather jacket burned off. A big hole was left in his clothes, even his pale skin was burned into an almost black shade. He growled, instinctively grabbing it... It felt like ash on touch. His eyes widened with rage. "You f***ed up brat. I'll kill you!" he burst out, immediately springing forth to attack Aki like a cat.
The boy only raised one arm to grab the punch, launched at him. His claws clenched around Tsuruki's hand, to stop the entire impact, even though it was immensely strong, and toss Tsuruki aside like a doll. He crashed into the wall, growling in pain - his hand was the same shade of grey-black as his shoulder, appearing not burned, but entirely disintegrated. The touch itself felt like a strong acid...
What the hell was this?
Aki's other hand clenched into a fist, and the black energy started gathering around it. "Don't leave now. It's too late."
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Mirike managed to block the energy arc with her remaining vectors, and she winced as the remnants of the other vector writhed in her back.
Seluku let loose with every kind of bullet he could, and the sound of gunfire only made the conflict worse, as police rushed to their location.
But suddenly, Mirike, Seluku and even Tsuruki would be unable to move, held still by Marake, who was stood next to Seluku.
"WHY ARE YOU HURTING MY FAMILY?!" A huge explosion ripped the room to pieces, and hundreds of thousands of kinetic blasts, each the strength of a hand grenade hit Aki, Marake's fear driving her to cause unparalleled destruction.
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Aki didn't even wince as the blasts hit him. All of them only ripped his skin and coat at most - none of them got deeper. It was like if he was made of steel...
He arched his back, giving her a deathly glare. "I told them to stop messing with me! They didn't listen... So let them pay!" he spit the words out. His immense spiritual energy was starting to escape the form of his body like black ink, streaming out into the room and disintegrating the ground beneath him.
He turned on his heel, and letting the thick streams of black follow him, destroying anything behind him, ran out like a missile. His dark side craved for blood and carnage... There was a lot of people on this space station, a lot of things to satisfy that hunger.
-
Marake screamed as the black energy reached her, and something strange happened.
She used kinetics to her advantage, and in her fear, her true power was unleashed.
Space warped as her kinetics gained gravity, and with that gravity, things around her became weightless, while others turned into black holes, and she simply kept screaming.
The sound of sheering metal screeched with her as the Libra itself began bending under her unlocked power.
And Aki, as the source, was held in a kinetic field so strong that not even light could escape the inwards force.
"AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH H!!!!!" The black shape that was Aki was thrown at hundreds of miles per hour backwards, crashing through wall after wall as Marake tried to kill her fears, the kinetic field crushing and pulling him apart as she screamed louder and louder.
-
The field enveloped Aki, and even his steel-hard body was pressed heavy under it, but wave after wave of highly concentrated energy... It broke. He emerged from it, covered in blood, and burst out towards the girl that attacked him.
In the meantime, Tsuruki did as much as he could to get rid of the collapsing fields of gravity to avoid their immediate surroundings from breaking. His success wasn't extreme, but at least some of them were gone, shot somewhere into the void outside the space station.
One opened before himself. If Marake wouldn't calm down, it would be dangerous...
He threw himself through it, landing behind his sister, and put one hands on her shoulder. "Marake, calm down! We're fine!" he shouted. Marake wasn't at the mental maturity of the rest of them, but he thought that as long as he can show her that he isn't hurt too badly, she could calm down.
Another field opened up before them, as big as he could make it, to contain Aki's quickly moving figure, and send him to a completely different part of the station.
-
"MAKE THEM GO AWAY!" Marake screamed as a cloud of dust and gas suddenly collected in the air, igniting and forming a small, rather hot sun in midair, before it exploded like a grenade and disappeared.
The whole space station began to shake and creak as Marake tried to break it, scared that whatever was trying to hurt her family would kill them.
"Make them go away." Finally, Tsuruki's words began to register, and things began to settle, as Marake's near limitless destructive potential turned back into just that, potential.
-
Tsuruki was finally able to drop down. The destroyed site was starting to calm down - finally. Now that whatever that white thing was was gone...
His eyes wandered down to his hand. He completely lost all sense in it...
No wonder. The flesh was completely dried to the bones. He could hardly move it... And it looked like it was still continuing to turn to such ash-like substance.
Why was it still... Disintegrating?
Something he hasn't felt in years was eating away at his mind as his eyes widened. Fear... What could he just do? If he wouldn't do something quickly... It might spread further. He didn't know, not a single clue... The first thing that came onto his mind was to cut it off and take it back to the Aegis. If someone would sort it out soon enough, he might yet be able to put it back. But if not... He'd be short half of his arm. Not something he could afford, considering it was the right one.
-
Mirike felt the tension ease in her twin, and she collapsed from sheer agony. She was missing a vector, and to her, that felt like an arm was gone. She had no idea what to do, and it was agonising. She was missing one of her babies.
The only person who was physically intact was Seluku, who had to decide between Marake, Tsuruki and Mirike. All of whom were in some kind of distress.
"Who's injured the worst?"
-
Tsuruki turned to Seluku with a vicious expression, but in fact, he was terrified. He noticed Mirike on the floor... At least, he was conscious and capable of acting on his own.
"Take care of her first!" he growled.
A small vortex opened up before him. He stuck his right arm into it, though the gap was very small...
Definitely a cleaner cut than a knife. He closed it.
Clenching his teeth as he growled in agony, he fell to the floor at the same time as his withered arm, cut off from below the elbow, was divided from the rest of his body. A shower of crimson cascaded onto the ground from the remains of his arm.
Hell, how it hurt. But he didn't scream, he didn't even cry.
-
As Seluku approached Mirike, the three remaining vectors reared, turning into their true, black, serpentine forms.
"Mirike! Mirike listen to me. It's Seluku." Seluku didn't dare approach the vectors, for fear of turning into thinly sliced Seluku ham. His voice carried through the air, and when the vectors registered who had approached, they calmed down, turning clear and bladed again.
Seluku picked Mirike up, before carrying her over to Tsuruki.
"Tsuruki, what the hell have you done now?!"
-
"What the hell have I done? I saved what is left from my f***ing arm!" Tsuruki shouted at him, gripping his arm above the elbow as tight as he could to slow the bleeding down. A shaking vortex opened before them, just big enough for one to get through, and not much else.
"Stop asking idiotic questions and get the f*** out of here!"
Finally, he managed to stand up, tying a piece of his T-shirt over his right arm, and picking the part that was cut off, withered to little more than bone, up. "Just get moving!"
It cost him all self-control to keep a somewhat composed tone when speaking - even though that 'somewhat composed' was, in his case, spitting the words out, growling, and shouting like a wild beast.
-
Seluku struggled to move Mirike through the portal, her frame surprisingly heavy to him. Maybe he was just drained, but it felt like a struggle. He laid her down on the other side, then looked at Tsuruki.
"Sorry about your arm Tsuruki." Seluku moved to get Marake, who was still iin her state.
"We're going back to Arimus. Marake?" He heaved her into his arms, and carried her through the portal.
"Come on Tsuruki."
-
"I don't want to hear your f***ing sorry, you retard!" Tsuruki growled, breathing heavily as he struggled to keep the portal open. "If you didn't f*** around with that thing, nothing would have happened!"
Finally, all the rest of them has gone through. He leaped through the flickering hole, which finally closed behind him, and stumbled into the room behind it.
The hall of his personal premises. Pretty close to the main part, and without a chance of someone running to them...
The strain caused by passing through the vortex seemed to be amplified at least ten times. He collapsed to his knees, and gasping to catch his breath clutched his fingers tighter around the bones in what -used- to be his arm. Even then, the floor was still getting stained by his blood.
-
As if by magic, the surroundings seemed to change, and somehow, Arimus was stood in front of them, and the were in his private medical bay.
"You fools..."
-
Tsuruki's eyes ran up to Arimus only slowly. What the... How did he...
He opened his mouth to speak, but not a sound came out. He couldn't amount to more than sink even a little further to the ground.
"My... Apologies." he muttered.
How could he explain something like that? That a creature could take all three of them - not counting Marake - and hurt them so bad with little to no effort... It was all that f***er Seluku's fault, he had to mess with that thing...
-
"Your apologies are worthless, as usual Tsuruki. You all tried to fight something beyond your own comprehension, and you nearly made Marake break the Libra. We are leaving port in 4 hours." Arimus stared at them, the symbols in his eyes glowing brightly. He stood tall, and regal, and his very presence was pure malice.
"And trust me. Whatever you fought, is nothing compared to what I can show you. I keep a nice collection of things that you would find frightening. So, if you don't want to meet K'hoth, I recommend that none of you fuck up again. Especially you Tsuruki. Next time, you will apologise to the maw of K'hoth."
-
"It wasn't... Even my fault! Seluku provoked it! I didn't do anything wrong!" he attempted to defend himself, and tried to stand up, but fell back to his knees an elbows.
What a pathetic display I'm putting up...
He growled, forcing himself up. Laying on the ground wouldn't help at all...
-
"You are at fault. It should not matter what others do. You were not strong enough to deal with it regardless." Arimus' eyes settled on a symbol, and he began healing Tsuruki's arm.
"And you are useless to me if you are injured." Arimus snarled, and from the back of the room, a loud, low roar emanated.
"K'HOTH. QUIET."
-
Avoiding Arimus' eyes, Tsuruki let him take care of what he had left of his arm, but he knew far too well that without having at least the bone of the rest, he couldn't regrow it. He picked that other part up, and tilted his head to the side to see Seluku.
"You retarded bastard. Take this to the tech department and see of they can return it to normal. I'll force it up your ass if you attempt anything, so don't even think..." he growled at him, carefully handing him the disintegrated arm.
-
Seluku wasn't with them. Seluku was elsewhere, undesired by Arimus. He had been sent to the mecha wing while Marake, Mirike and Tsuruki were present in the medbay.
"Seluku is not here right now. I will analyse it personally." Arimus' eyes changed symbol again, and with a sickening crunch, Tsuruki's arm began to regenerate rapidly, forming new bone and muscle quicker than any natural regeneration.
"Now then, tell me about what you fought."
-
Tsuruki's eyes widened at the sudden pain. If losing an arm hurt, regrowing it anew was agony. He just had to... Clench his teeth and endure it as long as it lasted. But at least he didn't have to worry... If he didn't have to cut it off before, he wouldn't have a problem regenerating - the skin on his shoulder which got burned by one of his opponent's blasts was already healing fast.
His opponent...
"I don't have a single f***ing clue. It looked human at first, then Seluku provoked it. It transformed and survived even Marake's attacks."
-
"I saw what happened, idiot. Tell me the subtleties you noticed. It's presence. It's mood. It's processes." Arimus finished healing, and then returned to his throne, waiting for what had just turned into a debrief.
"Consider this an official debriefing now."
-
"I'm not an-" he was ready to get defensive and lash out, but only then remembered who is he actually talking to. This wasn't Seluku, but Arimus...
"Fine then. It changed form into something white and grew horns. At first, it kept shouting at us to leave it alone... Then it attacked. It punched through a wall like it was nothing. It grabbed one of Mirike's vectors and caught my punch with its bare hand... I wasn't even holding back then. And whatever it touched started breaking down immediately. I... It was some sick kind of monster."
To be defeated...
...It was just a boy, right? A random teen. How naive.
-
"You say it grabbed one of Mirike's vectors?" Arimus' eyes grew wild with something between delight and fear, and he leaned forwards.
"So, what was it's presence like? Describe it to me." Arimus leaned back, and a single, heavy footstep resounded with a loud thud, and a dark presence dimmed all light in the room very slightly, and Arimus smiled.
"Don't mind that sound."
-
Tsuruki has been almost too busy stretching and testing the regrown arm to hear the question. Only in the last moment he realised that he was asked something...
"Presence? The f*** am I supposed to-" he snapped back, but the words eventually faded out. He better make Arimus satisfied... If he wanted to live...
"Dark. But not like a demon. It was insanely strong, but it didn't even feel like that thing was alive. Like spirits, or spirit hunters."
-
Another thud resounded, louder this time, and closer, and the light had dimmed further, only half as bright now.
"Tell me how similar that presence is to this one." Arimus stood up, heading to the door.
"Now, K'hoth. Don't kill him." Arimus left the room, locking the door behind him, and heading to the camera room, watching the lights get dimmer and dimmer as K'hoth approached Tsuruki, his aura getting exponentially stronger.
"K'hoth... Hungry... Feed..."
-
Although instinctively backing up, Tsuruki shook his head. "Nothing like it. That thing was clever. Clever and brutal... It was glad to see us suffering, but didn't let on more. I couldn't read in it. This thing is just hungry. And... It was stronger. In a sense, the presence was cold. Dead. This thing is disturbingly alive, although it craves death, that one was cold and didn't let anything on..."
Quickly squeeze out as much nonsense as possible... It were just observations he quickly made - thus, mostly unimportant crap.
But if it could save his neck, he'd do anything.
-
K'hoth stepped from the shadows, his teeth bared, blood dripping from his huge maw.
"Tell me more Tsuruki, and K'hoth will leave you alone..." Arimus called over microphone.
Blood and Viscera bolted from the shadows, screeching at the top of their lungs as K'hoth made his slow, terrifying advance towards Tsuruki.
"K'hoth feed... Feed... Fooodddd... Hungeerrrr... Paiiiinnnn."
-
With a few more steps back, Tsuruki kept talking. "At first, it looked like an ordinary human boy. Then, Seluku used his mind torture. It looked like it's in pain, and then started changing. It went white and started attacking... It had horns and yellow eyes. The attacks of it were also weird... It was using its energy to shoot it around..."
-
"You tell me things I already know Tsuruki... Things I saw when I watched the attack. I have no desire to know those things. In fact, I have no desire to keep you alive if you continue to prove this useless to me." K'hoth's advance stopped, and the creature let out a low growl, standing it's ground.
"Remember that next time you decide to fail me. K'hoth is ALWAYS hungry." Arimus unlocked the door, knowing that K'hoth wouldn't go through while the control collar was on.
-
"It was like that mad Adachi woman." Tsuruki muttered, further backing up in caution as he analyzed the creature that Arimus called K'hoth. It looked dangerous, but simple-minded...
"Something between Marake and that Adachi woman with fangs..."
Sen Ryuu. Tsuruki only got to perceive her once from a distance, when he was still young, but he remembered the monstrous, omnious aura of bloodthirst that simply streamed from her.
Could that thing be...? No, there was no chance of that.
-
K'hoth's subtle auras warped and changed, and it shifted to the one it could sense Tsuruki imagining. That of something that only desired bloodshed and death. Something that was aeons old, and had seen extinction more times than any god. It was ancient beyond belief, and powerful.
K'hoth growled, and his mouth began to open.
"FFEEEEEDDDDD...." It spoke, and it began to corner Tsuruki, it's gaping maw revealing it's dark, black, empty insides.
"K'hoth, enough. He doesn't know anymore. His senses are too blunt, to imperfect to sense the subtleties I need to know."
-
"What else am I supposed to tell you?" Tsuruki burst out angrily, his glance flashing from Arimus to K'hoth and back. This beast... It was unnerving. What was this thing?
"What we fought acted too fast to analyze the movements. I don't know what it used, but it wasn't like... Normal magic..." He leaned back to get away from that gaping maw, and with slow steps shifted to the side, keeping eyes on the beast. "It was really like that Adachi woman and whatever those f***ers are using and calling 'spells', but... Darker. Like a spirit. It wasn't dumb like this thing here... You could literally sense it wants to rip you apart and see you writhe and suffer, like if it was feeding on the pain and blood, but you couldn't calculate its movements... I don't think it attacked us because it had something against us. We just happened to provoke it and be near."
He had to pull the slightest, smallest details out of his mind... Damn it.
"Just as well it would have attacked anything, I think. It just wanted to kill and feast on death."
-
K'hoth sniffed Tsuruki his huge form stinking of raw meat and rotten flesh, the mess of smells confusing. He could have eaten any number of Veloraks in the past hour.
"K'hoth, leave him. I think he has learned his lesson..." Arimus stepped through the door, and K'hoth obeyed, cowering from his master in a fearful manner.
"K'hoth... Obey..." The lumbering demon slumped away, his heavy footsteps growing quiet again.
"Now then Tsuruki. Don't screw up in future, and you won't get to join the list of things K'hoth has eaten."
-
Tsuruki let out a low growl as to counter the beast, bending back as far as his spine could bear to avoid the hellish stench.
His eyes narrowed at Arimus' last remark. It was serious... He knew it was serious.
"F***. I won't." he muttered.
Seluku was going to have a serious problem... But before that, Tsuruki had a date with his gym, and one of the bottles of booze, stored in his room.
-
Seluku sat with Mirike in the med bay, watching his sister writhe in agony as her Vector began to violently reassemble itself. To Mirike, it was an experience of sheer blinding pain, and she was unable to think of any thought but the pain. To her, it was more agonising than childbirth, kidney stones and incineration combined.
The black tendril crept very slowly from her back, leaving a trail of blood, and medical bots began to swarm her and replenish her blood levels. And all she could do was scream.
"Mirike, you fool."
-
The moment Tsuruki was dismissed, he disappeared to his room. With a bottle full of (not completely legally gained) whisky, he changed into clothes that weren't entirely destroyed, and decided to even skip his trip to the training hall.
Living with them for so many years, he didn't even have to think about where Seluku was. Off course, that bastard would stick with Mirike...
He made his way through the medics, to appear right behind Seluku's back, and press the bottle between the blonde's shoulderblades.
"You motherf***ing bastard." he growled, fists dangerously tense and eyes narrowed with antagonism. It was a look of sheer hate as he barred his teeth at him, breathing at his neck.
"I'll f***ing murder you. I'll f*** up that smug face of yours that even Arimus won't put it together!"
-
Mirike was left immobile and unconscious by the end of the regrowth process, and Seluku was left to fend for himself.
"Shit." He muttered under his breath. He calmed his nerves, turning to face Tsuruki.
"Okay, but might I ask why brother?" He posed a question.
"My intentions were good. I was trying to immobilise the thing while we made our escape. I admit I caused the incident, but I tried to correct the problem. So why kill me? Where is the logic in that?"
-
"Because I f***ing hate that smug face of yours!" Tsuruki burst out, passing the bottle to his left hand to clench the right one into a strong fist. The regrown tissue was just as powerful... It left a thin scar on his forearm, but otherwise, it worked perfectly. Seluku was a good thing to try it out on, was he not?
He took a step back, turning to the side a little. And then, without any warning, launched a lightning-fast punch with the strength of a flying brick straight at Seluku's abdomen.
The table-cracking kind.
And if it wasn't enough, his knee flew up instantaneously after, to bash into his brother with a similar power.
-
Seluku hit the floor before he could even comprehend how powerful Tsuruki was, and how much the punches had hurt.
"Agh... Dammit... What the fuck?!" He began to crawl to one side, trying to escape Tsuruki's reach as fast as possible. If he could dodge even one attack and grab Tsuruki, he could paralyze him.
He staggered to his feet, winded and in agony, and waited for the next strike, before deciding now wasn't the time.
Then he projected an image into Tsuruki's mind, to show him an image of a world where Tsuruki was powerless, strengthless, helpless.
"Feel that Tsuruki? That's you, that's your weakness. You think I don't know it..."
-
"I don't GIVE A F***!" he threw himself forth, aiming to kick Seluku into the left kidney. The image was disturbing... More than that, it was unnerving, but after all that he's seen today... It was just an image.
Just an image...
"This. Is. Why. I. Hate. You. You. Smug. Bastard." Each word was followed by a strong kick or punch, like a sharp stop to emphasize them.
"I'll f*** up that face of yours!"
-
Seluku managed to crush a pill between his teeth before he got the kick, and the chemical dissolved straight into his blood, sending his power haywire.
He projected hundreds of thousands of different images into Tsuruki's mind, and even Seluku struggled to think with the sheer volume of images.
Then his paralysation began to go haywire, and arcs of electricity began to shoot from his hands.
But that didn't stop the kicks and punches.
Eventually, he managed to touch Tsuruki, and he just had to hope he had paralyzed him.
-
The images only got Tsuruki into a greater rage. No matter how distracted he was, he held onto his rage, and the beating he was giving to Seluku didn't stop.
That was, till his accursed brother managed to touch him. He fell to his knees, resisting the paralysis as much as he could, but most of his body was effectively motionless.
"You... F***er..." he growled.
-
Seluku was about to kick Tsuruki in the teeth, but he found himself suspended upside down suddenly, and behind him, stood Mirike, her face full of anger at both him and Tsuruki.
Quickly enough, Tsuruki joined Seluku, and in front of their faces, the air shimmered with the infinitely sharp points of her vectors.
"You both..." She couldn't even talk, before she smashed the two together at the head, enraged at what they had been doing.
"YOU WOULD JUST LEAVE MARAKE ON HER OWN?! WHERE IS SHE?! WHERE IS MY SISTER?!"
-
"How... The f***... Am I supposed to have a... Clue?" Tsuruki responded with rage. "I... Wasn't... With her from the start. I came... To kill this f***er!"
The clink of glass pulled his attention away. The bottle that he held finally escaped his clenched fist, crashing against the floor and breaking into two. Dark, amber-colored liquid that filled it till then was spilled onto the floor and filled the air with its stench.
-
Mirike screamed at them, her rage inconceivable at this point.
"YOU PUT MY SISTER IN DANGER, THEN JUST LEAVE HER TO WANDER ROUND?! YOU'RE BOTH USELESS, ARROGANT, PATHETIC PIECES OF SHIT, AND YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN!" She threw the pair across the room, and stormed out after Marake, scouring the entire ship for her sister.
Seluku hit the wall hard, and found himself stunned. He'd overworked his powers and now he could feel the strain on him.
-
To Tsuruki's sturdy body, the impact wasn't as bad as the fact that he was still half-paralyzed, and hit the ground like a boulder. The spilled whisky was already surrounded by cleaners... Damn. That one was pretty expensive.
He raised himself to his knees and elbows and gradually managed to stand up. Seluku didn't seem to be moving... How very, very fortunate!
A maddened grin appeared on his face as he cracked his knuckles.
-
As if it were another world, the room seemed to fade into blackness.
"Now, now, now Tsuruki. I would think twice, and take a look at who is waiting for you if you kill Seluku. Go on, turn around..." Arimus' voice boomed into Tsuruki's mind, and the feel of a long, heavy breath went over Tsuruki's neck.
For behind Tsuruki, stood K'hoth.
"K'hoth will be the only reality you know if you hurt Seluku. I will make sure his failures are adequately dealt with. It is not your place or right to do that, nor will it ever be."