Night One Hundred And Seventy Six
Age 1991
Gladious City...
The Arena...
"Not good..." Hero winced as he watched Ken crash into the ground landing head first. Blood poured out of the hole in her chest as she gasped out.
"Ken..." Shelly said slowly flinching a little.
"D... Damn it..." Kitsune hissed. "If Ken can't beat that person then what kind of chances do I have!"
"You couldn't beat Ken anyways so why does it matter?" Light asked. "Also does anyone else smell smoke?"
"Smoke."
Irene turned her eyes going wide at what she saw. "Uh Hero... You're... Smoking..."
"Hmm?" Small flakes of smoke was coming off of Hero's head rising up, and up. They watched as much of his green eye turned into a ruby red. There were still bits of emerald in it but most of the iris was taken over by the red. His blackish hair also began to slowly turn snow white only leaving a few strips of black. "Oh cool. My cells are finally stop being all weird. I'm turning back... I wonder if I'll shrink and my scars will come back?" He hummed.
"Who cares about that!" Shelly yelled. "Look at Ken! She's..." The pink haired girl turned away not looking.
In the arena Ken let out a loud yell of pain as Ven, began to step on the girls stomach much in the same way Ken had done to her. She didn't stop there though. Her foot came out as she began to kick Ken. Over, and over again. When she seemed like she was finally done she raised her foot up and stomped down on Ken's head making her cry out in pain.
It was a very brutal sight. Many civilians were looking away, and a few Enforcers looked like they might get involved. Ken didn't look like she was about to get back up and looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"I'm putting a stop to this." Shelly said going to jump up onto the wall but was stopped when Hero grabbed her shoulder.
"You do that and you'll be kicked out as well. Maybe even all of us."
"Who cares about that." Shelly hissed.
"I do."
Shelly glared into his ruby red eyes for a moment. Pink flames seemed to morph around her body but Hero's right arm simply changed into his clawed form his green energy covering his arm and keeping it safe from the flames.
"Shelly."
"Do you really not care about her?"
"I do care." Hero said frowning. "Ken's strong... I trust she won't quit yet."
Shelly was silent for a moment as she looked past him and back to the arena remembering everything that happened with North. And the end of that fight when Ken broke down. "...She's not as strong as you all think. None of you get how fragile she can be." She threw Hero's arm off of her shoulder as she folded her arms. "None of you know... Not even a little..."
Up in the arena Ken let out another cry as her head was smashed into the ground by the foot. Ven grinded her heel into the girls head taking great joy in the many cracks, either from the stone floor or the skull it was hard to tell... It was even hard to tell if this was Versa's normal way of acting, was she usually a psychotic and took joy in causing pain, or was this the form. The dark power of a Seraphin.
Ken let out a small gasp as her vision began to turn blood red from the pain and her slowly cracking skull. Everything slowly was taken over as her eyes got heavier, and heavier. It was getting hard to think and each intake of air hurt her lungs and burned her throat.
Ken slowly closed her eyes as it all went dark...
"Otoko..."
The voice hit her ears making her shake.
"Otoko..."
She felt a small frown cross onto her face.
"Wake up dumbass!"
Ken set up her eyes going wide as she looked around. She was no longer in the arena... Now she rested in a large pool of red liquid? Away from her in the distance what looked like a giant white hospital rested.
"Oh... You're not Otoko..."
"What?" Ken turned around and her eyes went wide when she saw what was behind her. "L... Labby!"
Resting behind her he stood. A giant white lab coat. Large golden chains wrapped around his body. Up in the air what looked like a smaller lab coat floated around...
"Hmm... I see..." Labby hummed nodding the closest thing he had to a head. "So that's what that idiot did... To think... He'd go so far as to place me into you..."
"Uh what?" Ken frowned.
"Oh... Nothing... I was just in Hero Otoko earlier."
"Hero... Otoko... Otoko is the clan name of Hero's grandfather?"
"Yes... Your world to has a Hero... Hero Law? Long story short young girl I am from another world. In my world I was bonded with Hero Otoko. A Powerful Seraphin. Are world is gone though... And we have joined yours... Otoko has sided with Orion, a fact I didn't agree with... He knows you won't side with them either. Despite that though it would seem he couldn't get over his fondness for you... In his world he held some feelings for the Ken of that place... Rather it was romantic, a deep friendship, or he viewed her as a sister, I do not know. Whatever the case these feelings were so strong he decided to gift you with me... It would seem he also placed 'her' into you as well... You should ask Law about this. He knows more. He's been keeping a great many secrets from all of you after all..."
"Oh boy... Yay..." Ken said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "I'm so glad..." She crossed her arms and let out a loud huff stomping her foot into the ground. "I got a lot of questions to ask Hero when I'm done getting my ass beat..."
"Hmm?"
"Oh I'm kind of getting beat down." Ken sighed. "She's become a form of me that's stronger than my base."
"I see... And you can't control your Seraphin form can you?"
"Nope. I don't suppose you can help out with that?" She asked raising an eyebrow.
"Afraid not." Labby said giving a shrug which looked quite odd since he's a lab coat...
"Maybe I can help!" The mini Lab Coat announced loudly floating down.
"Why are there two of you? Three I guess if you count the hospital but that energy feels like something else..." Ken hummed.
"Long story!" Mini Lab Coat announced. "But. I can say this. You can't use that transformation right... You're stuck in your base form... Hero Otoko was the same. He often couldn't control his transformation. So what he would do is just increase his base form power."
"I kind of can't do that in the middle of a battle." Ken huffed crossing her arms.
"Then just do what he did!" This mini lab coat seemed a lot more chipper than the giant one... It morphed over her body causing her to wear it as thin needles came out of it and jutted into her body making her gasp out. "Otoko has several powers... Same things to be with you... You can flash freeze, fire out beams, jut out those spikes, and heal... Otoko knew he couldn't just get stronger mid battle so he always tried to make new attacks and use his powers better..." Ken began to see things. She saw herself for a moment using that red beam attack she had used on Ven earlier. Than she saw someone else... A boy who looked almost like Hero but with black hair and silver eyes. "Maybe use that energy better... Your control with it is amazing... Think about it..."
Ken felt herself be dropped to the floor as thoughts moved through her head. She saw more, and more, of this strange boy. She saw everything she did as her mind raced and she began to see more.
The big Labby let out a small huff. "I don't know if that was a good idea but whatever the case foolish girl. We've done enough. Use those powers to a better use if you want to win... I could honestly care less... I need to find a way back to Otoko... Be gone of this world."
Ken opened her eyes as a red explosion of energy jutted out of her throwing Ven off of her. Ken set up back in the real world breathing heavily. Steam rolled off of her body as her wounds began to slowly heal and fix itself. Her body was shaking and sweat seemed to be falling down her body as she breathed heavily gasping out.
"She's back up!" Shelly asked with wide eyes.
"Ken's strong. I told you." Hero smirked. "She might fragile like you claimed. She might be breakable. She might fall down. But she'll always get back up."
"I... I know that but..." Shelly was silent for a moment. "I don't like seeing her get hurt... I'd rather find a way to stop any of this, then have her just get back up."
"You can't protect someone else unless you can save yourself." Hero shrugged. "Trust me." The thoughts of Row went through his mind. His black hair finally vanished back into its snow white color as the red fully to his green iris over. "I know what it's like to lose someone that you care about, and I know what it's like to watch them in pain. Sometimes though. Your best isn't good enough. So get better."
"Oh I have some many questions for Hero!" Ken hissed.
Ven slowly pulled herself up letting out a growl. "You can still stand?"
"I can do more than that." Ken smirked. She weakly stood up and shook her head. She felt some of her strength returning to her. She could feel it though. Something was different inside of her. More... Focused. She didn't get stronger. Her power did not change. Yet... She had... An Idea. "I can still fight." Ken announced. She reached up to her shoulder and was about to grab one of her black spikes but stopped.
'Maybe use that energy better... Your control with it is amazing... Think about it...'
Ken took a huff. "Alright... Energy... Let's see just how far I can push you." She forced her arms forward firing out one of her typical beams as hard as she could. It fired towards Ven who slapped out at it, back handing the weak attack away.
"You'll never get a direct hit like that!"
Ken frowned jumping forward and bringing her arms back. "We'll see about that." She fired out the exact same attack once again. It launched out towards the girl who once again got ready to simply slap it away but this time Ken brought her arms up causing the entire beam to bend upwards and fly into the air shocking Ven. Ken slammed her arms around as the beam bent around and slammed into the back of Ven making her cry out. "Ha! I can bend it after all... Just like when I use my scatter red shot... I can bend my red shot now!"
"Oww! Bastard!" She pointed forward as she fired off several red beams of energy towards Ken at high speed.
Ken crossed her arms out as the beams hit her and she cried out in pain many of them stabbing through her. She gritted her teeth and breathed in. "Otoko did something to when he couldn't dodge attacks. He used his to block them..." The red energy began to slowly crackle around her body forming a dome of red energy which the beams all blasted off of. "Red Barrier!"
"God damn it what the hell! You weren't like this a moment ago!" Ven yelled. Red energy wrapped around her fist as she fired forward and slammed a powerful punch into the red barrier exploding it into what looked like shattered red glass.
"Well... I don't like it that much either." Ken sighed. Ven's speed was intense. Hard to keep up with but she countered that by jutting the beams out of her hands like many, mini red blasts allowing her to dodge the attacks. "I'm basically ripping this one boy who kind of doesn't exist off, after a lab coat showed me how he fought."
"What kind of riddle is that!"
"Still..." Ken felt a small smile cross onto her face as she saw another thing he used to do. Whenever he felt like ending a fight he had one big attack. A Big-Arm-Strike. Focusing all that power into a massive punch. "I suppose he could do some cool stuff. Big attacks are kind of cool." Ken clasped her two hands together as she raised them high above her head a mass of red energy covering her arms and forming a massive red laser sword out of her arms making Ven's eyes go wide. "Take this!" Ken slammed the massive attack down as hard as she could slamming the entire sword into Ven's body and splitting the arena in half. "Dark Saber!"
The wind seemed to be kicked up as part of the arena snapped off falling to the floor.
When the dust slowly settled Ken could be seen breathing heavily. Versa, back in her normal body was face down not moving.
"Hey... Dog man start counting! I seriously hope she doesn't get back up." Ken hissed falling to her knees.
"R... Right... One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight..." Versa twitched for a moment but Ken slammed her leg out kicking the girl upside the head.
"No! Stay unconscious!"
"N... Nine... And Ten! Versa has failed to get up in time! The Winner is Ken Red of the Sixth Squad!"