The Chariot's body laid unconscious on the floor, everyone else had struggled to get themselves off of the wet grass. The Serpent that had once manifested had been sucked away with the swipe of the Warrior's hand, his fiery orange eyes examining each of their bodies. Stepping over them, as if he was being careful not to hurt them. When he spoke moments prior, it seemed that no one had reacted, indicating that they were going to be easy to capture. Right? Were they that easy to incapacitate? It seems reaching the Kingdom's goal would be easier than expected, Heaven was finally in sight. A simple blink was all that was needed to change the tide of the incoming conflict, the Warrior spun around and blocked an incoming beam of plasma energy made entirely of light. Who was the assailant you wonder? None other than the representative of the Empress, Madisyn, who had managed to incase herself in a heated bubble of light taken from the sun above to reflect upon him. Though he had blocked the attack, he was still affected by her abilities, causing a hole to become visible in his right arm through the armor.
"You..." His hand reached out as if to grab her, luckily, his arm wasn't long enough. A physic force pulled her body from the ground she was stuck to and slammed her into the grass, effectively making a Crack! emerge from her nose. The force he had slammed her at had caused her consciousness to fade away, her blood hovering into the air as she was thrown with the rest. His feet were like heavy metal pounding against the sidewalk as if it could crack your bones with a single stomp. As if it had a mind of its own, the Smoldering Warrior reached down to grab the neck of the Fool, Ben. If the Kingdom's grand prize had been injured in any way, shape, or form, then his life would be classified as a forfeit. Two daggers flew his way, both of his suddenly gloved palms wrapped around the blades, they had both been supercharged by lightning! The Being screamed in terror, holding his head in agony as the demons disappeared in a poof of red smoke. Someone else's feet started to leave patterns of audible noise behind him, it was the one who controlled sound! A tiny ball of fire entered the chest of the Justice, to where it exited through his back, effectively destroying his heart and spine. He still wasn't fast enough, then his fingers spun around and dug themselves into the right eye of the Moon. He screamed in agony, blood gushing from his wound as the eyeball was taken and squished onto the ground underneath the metal foot of the Smoldering Warrior. Next, he grabbed the collar of the Moon, his foot pushing against his chest and his right arm being torn off. Blood emerged out of the socket where the appendage originated, if he were to damage him further, it would be surely lead to his anger taking over. And the rest of these teenagers would be damaged to the point where he'd have to find replacements for his Superior.
"I apologize, Mr. Karlo, for that burst of anger. I am unsure if I can replace your eye, but your arm is a yes. It can be fixed, though not in the way you'd expect," The eyelids covering his blue-violet pupils had retracted, noticing everything around him in blurry vision, his ex laid unconscious with a bump to the right side of her forehead. She was as pretty as ever, though. What had awakened him was the sudden screaming of someone near him, who was it?
"Uh... everyone?" The Smoldering Warrior of the Future's position had shifted, only seconds prior, he was standing proud amongst the bodies of his defeated. And now, he was kneeling beside the body of Ben's future rival. His shadow had been pulled away from over the Moon's figure and revealed there to be two new enhancements that had been gifted to the boy. A prosthetic cybernetic replacement arm for his flesh torn off one, the eyes of Ben Rivera had widened, disgusted by the fact that someone as horrible as the Warrior could exist.
"Mr. Rivera. Uh- this is a very awkward way to meet you, I'm very sorry for the intrusion, my name is H-" No words could prevent him from speaking any further, especially when he had seen the image of his older sister laying in a pool of her blood. It seemed to happen for only a moment, but suddenly, Ben had transported in front of the Warrior. No warning, nothing, no visual cue, or anything. He was just there, all over his body, he had sensed the feeling of pain.
"DIE, YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!" Each punch was like a new feeling that he had never experienced before, he had hands cut off, bones were broken, even his leg had been cut off. Yet, nothing was quite like the fists of the Fool when they met his body, each punch broke a new part of his skull and another bone in his chest.
"USELESS!!!!!!!" The final punch shattered through the metal mouthpiece that covered the face of the pieces crumbling and steam emitting from them as the debris hovered off the street where the Warrior had been thrown.
"You've come here to dispose of the others and capture my friends, isn't that correct? They may not be as trained or ready as I am, but I am fully capable of eradicating you right where you are. I can see the way your face is turned away from me, and the remnants of your bones inside of your body are shaking from pain and fear. Whenever you dispose of someone, you should be fully aware - that you're the one who's going to get disposed of,"
~This bastard's serious! I thought he was just a kid, does he have the balls to kill..? I have to get the hell outta here! Dammit...~ Those thoughts ran through the Warrior's mind, this guy was no joke, if he was going to be able to beat him, it wasn't going to be one-on-one. It would have to be planned, not so sudden.
"It seems you have no intention of running, good. Makes my job easier for me," The Fool was under the impression that the Warrior would stay and fight even further, though a wrong one. The pebbles of debris from the house on the ground and just made of Nature flew toward the damaged body of their attacker. They seemingly hit nothing, as the Smoldering Warrior of the Future had transported somewhere as a last-ditch effort to run away from Ben.
"Tch, coward," But thinking about that guy was the last of his concerns at this point, his sister had a broken nose to the left of the destroyed House, Ella and Henry were knocked out, Matt had some of his flesh melted off, Ryder had his arm and eye was torn out/off, and Jason... he'll heal. Like a bat emerging from the darkness, Rivera kneeled over his best friend, The Chariot's body, digging through his clothing. Here they were! Keys to an apartment, he nodded upon gazing at them. Luckily they didn't fly out of his pockets when the House blew up.
"Alright, you all," The young man rubbed both of his eyes, remembering the color of that guy's before he had managed to escape. Fiery orange, like you, were staring right into the sun's blazing hot rays that would singe your pupils off. There was no doubt about it, both the Warrior and the Chariot held the same colored eyes. Spinning the metal circle of the keys around his index finger, he wondered, What was their connection?
Time had accelerated at a quickening pace, waiting for no one in its path to consume everything. Fate led the Protectors to Queens, New York, where Henry resid on his couch. Slap, slap, the back of a palm hit the side of his cheek twice. The Chariot awoke to the face of his best friend, the Fool, throwing the keys to the Apartment right on his chest.
"Wake up, we got shit to worry about. And if I can't sleep either can the rest of you," Right down to business, let me give you an idea of the description of this living room. The couch that Henry was laid upon had two other chairs to the left and right, coffee table in front, and the TV in front of that. The door was to the far right of the television, where the lock had been slammed shut hours prior. Two doors side by side were situated behind the sofa, the right belonging to Henry, visible from the multiple signs of anime. And the other was for someone else, though that room had been stolen by the two girls of the Protectors, who had come out together. Sort of. El had been wearing the blue pajamas that she had found in the drawers of the room, groaning sleepily and a small wince of pain entered his nervous system. Mostly due to the blonde carrying the sister of the Riveras on her back, who had been engorged in a deep slumber.
"I got mine," Matt and Ryder came out the other room, but the Magician came out first stretching out his arms into the air with a reluctant soft, "Morning..." The Moon, meanwhile, pulled a tank top over his chest trying to stretch it so it fit him correctly.
"You look comfy, Ry," Jason muttered from the kitchen, leaning over the island with a cheeky smirk penetrating the tip of a dagger into the surface of the counter.
"Hey!"
"Relax, dumbass, no one's here. Your sister had left long before we got here, and I doubt she's going to come back anytime soon. More importantly, we need to talk about the current situation. Everyone, get dressed and get eating, then we can speak," 30 minutes after eating pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, and french toast, the Protectors were stuffed to the brim with food. One so much as to he fell asleep from it, that being Ryder, it seemed he couldn't handle the overabundance of food. Then again, it seemed like that with everyone. Clearing his throat, the right miniature appendages of the Fool reached to ruffle his sister's hair.
"Heyy!"
"Shush, so, let's get right down to it. We need to find this guy while we still can, if we don't, he could very well attack us at this very moment and put all our lives in extreme danger. If that wasn't obvious from how much he damaged most of you, we need a plan. To find him," The crackling of a nearby flame was heard echoing from the candle in the kitchen, it wavering with the sudden appearance of a new being. A whisper sent chills down the back of his spine, belonging to an angry distorted voice that growled as he spoke,
"I'm right here," The Warrior took Ben's words to heart, he was not here to dispose of everyone, though they proved an irritation to fight against. But he was not going to be the one disposed of, a wave of fire made manifest from the candle's lit flame manifesting into a huge wall of flames.
"I am giving you an option, younglings. Though I am here for Rivera, the rest of you could prove useful to the Kingdom's plan. It is up to all of you if you want to come. However, I can solely guarantee that you will most definitely lose without your trump card here if you come to fight and not surrender. That is my offer. I bid you Adieu," The wall of flames engulfed the young man with the Warrior's grip around his neck, warping them throughout a dimensional rift throughout space and spitting them out in God knows where. Everyone hadn't even bothered to react or try to attack, they were too dumbfounded by the situation and all that was presented. Except for Karlo, the choices he had about his proposal. What was the point of fighting when he was gifted with such nice prosthetics?
"What're you all planning to do?" The choice was obvious from the start, everyone had their reasons for wanting to save the Fool, and even if what happened yesterday hadn't transpired the way it did, it wasn't like they'd choose otherwise,
"Well... he's our brother," Madi threw back at the boy, scoffing at the thought of abandoning her little brother. He might be a pain in the ass sometimes but he healed them, all of them, and brought them to this place away from the Warrior. Though that guy had returned, he did his best to try and help the people he loved,
"I owe him a great debt, especially, even after we broke up just the week before that 'Spread'... he saved me. Without hesitation, I'll risk my life to save him, too. No matter what's the cost," The Priestess and Fool's relationship proved to be a little rocky throughout the month they'd be training, but this proved it for her. Despite everything they'd been through, he proved his kindness and misdemeanor wasn't all that was of him. He was still a good person, and she'd always love him for that. Despite what's happening with his mother and the effects it's having on him.
"There's something about that guy, I don't know what it is. That idiot is my best friend, no doubt I'd be willing to go and save his sorry ass. But, I need to do this for myself too. I have to find out the truth behind 'im," Whenever that guy was around, he felt this sort of connection, he would hear whispers of someone in his head. Yet that voice that spoke was not his own, rather, it would be of the Warrior's mind speaking and wandering. Why was he so special as to be gifted with this vision into the mind of the Smoldering Warrior? There had to be some truth behind the mystery.
"That son of a fucking bitch took my home, the only thing remaining of my sister. I couldn't even find a picture of her, the only thing that remains of my legacy is this picture of my mother. Ben repaired it for me using his powers, I can't think him enough for that. So, I am going to save him!" Matt's resolve was fired up like his soul, although it had once been encased by the ice of his abilities, it was now firing up with the heat of revenge. And hate for the man who had done the very thing that cost him the memories of his sister and mother.
"What about you? Sure, he didn't do anything for you, Ryder, but he brought you here. To... sleep on the floor. Maybe you shouldn't come, actually,"
"I hate the guy. He's a stupid fucking know-it-all, too powerful for a teenager and too emotional for his good. Then again, if I just surrendered, I probably would be controlled by whatever Kingdom this guy is working for. I'm done being controlled, plus, I haven't even tested this baby out," Ryder's cybernetic arm had the edge of it, the hand, use the nanobots in it to morph into a plasma cannon that pulsed at the reaction to the air. Begging to burn something, like the arm had a sadistic mind of its own.
"Great, then we're all on the same page. Maybe not for the same reasons, but whatever. We need to find him, but how?" The first step to this plan is understanding how the Warrior found them in the first place, then they could find some way to figure out. There had to be some variable that had caused him to find them wherever they went, but what? Thinking back about it, it was a hard thing to discover, considering how little they knew about the Warrior's power. The Chariot thought back to seconds prior when he was responding to Ryder's question with his cliche answer, he still cringed thinking about it. That voice he had heard before, belonging to the Future Warrior. Was that how he was able to find him? With this psychic connection, the two had shared for whatever reason? He needed some way to use this connection he'd been gifted to find the Warrior, the more time he wasted, the more time that Ben was possibly getting hurt or tortured. There... had to be some way. For but a moment, he caught a glimpse into the mind of the Warrior, a location. The place where Death had lingered for centuries, Greenwood Cemetery.
"I know where he is!"
An hour had passed, at the entrance to the cemetery, Ben stood like a scapegoat. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary if you hadn't looked down to see the cement that had been manipulated to cover his feet. The Fool knew the rules, he could easily escape this by breaking it, but that would be useless. The Warrior of the Future was watching, stalking, he didn't know where he was, but there was the definite possibility that he was everywhere at once. Every few seconds, chunks of the cement that had covered his feet had been chipped away, though it was very slow and barely noticeable. The odd part about him doing this was how it should be very visible that he would be leaning down to chip away at the cement using his powers, but it wasn't. No time had passed between these events like it didn't exist at all. Luckily for the Warrior of the Future, he manifested back into this dimension with a poof of smoke as the indicator. The smoke evaporated into his right hand, being sucked in by some sort of magic force, he leaned to examine his feet. How was this happening? Had this child possessed some sort of power that he was unaware of? He wasn't tolerating any more games, the collar of the shirt he was wearing was gripped ahold of and the Warrior pulled the Fool with an iron grip.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Who knows? But it's pissing you off, so--" Crack! The nose of the Future Warrior was snapped, thus began his defeat at the hands of the Protectors. Lightning, composed of the blood inside of the body, red as ever, had been left by the body of his older brother. Four daggers supercharged by lightning had been inserted each side of the Smoldering Warrior's throat. Not pushed deep enough to kill him though, a slide made of ice was created from the top of the cathedral that acted as the entrance to the Cemetery. Who slid down on it creating more at the bottom, none other than the Magician. Holding a bat in his right hand composed entirely of dry ice, the remaining strength he held was used to throw a fireball at Miller. However, he left himself open, vulnerable. This ball of flames was easily controlled by the Chariot, who had been hovering above the head of the Warrior and was aimed directly at Ben's cement-covered feet. Henry's power allows him to use his body heat and whatever strong emotion he was feeling to create balls of fire. Depending on what type of emotion he had been experiencing at the time of controlling fire, it would be either chillier or hotter than the flame before. However, the ball of warmth he had just taken control of was not his own, meaning he could control the temperature freely without having to worry about limitations. Right now, the temperature needed to burn through cement and make it melt was about 1550 degrees C/2880 degrees F. And that's exactly what he did, the ball of fire erupted in a burst of smoke, the force that he had thrown it was enough. As the smoke cleared, Ben had disappeared, to the dismay of the Warrior,
"NO--!" He screamed before the crack of his neck was heard escaping from his skeleton, just with enough force to incapacitate him for the time being. The Warrior who represented the Fortune had stumbled back across the road toward the grass if he could escape... if he could get to that place, maybe... he could survive. That wasn't going to happen, this was exactly what the Protectors had trained for. Ropes made of plasma had suddenly manifested out of the grass the Warrior had stood under. These plasma ropes burnt through the metal armor that their assaulter had worn, going even deeper to burn his wrists so far that his skeleton had shown and the flesh had been melted apart. Madi had suddenly walked out of her blanketed reality of light that covered her, this power was called Blanketing. Using rays of light to create another dimension where no one except who you choose can enter and see you. The blanket she had used to render herself invisible had suddenly vanished, her body becoming material once more as she glared into the fiery eyes of the Fortune. His card had been twisted around to represent the opposite of the Wheel of Fortune Arcana, that much was clear. The Moon had exited with her, chuckling as he cracked his left knuckles with his metal appendages,
"How pathetic..." These punches were just as painful as the other's, every once in a while, he would experience a punch flying from his metal fist. Which broke two bones at once, yet the reason it didn't hurt as much was that his left hand was not able to use superhuman strength. He instead did something completely different, to which he infused a supersonic sound inside of the heart of this asshole, and when he released the final punch courtesy of his right knuckle breaking his jaw and cheekbones, the Moon yelled out,
"MUDAH!" Useless/futile in Japanese, the final punch sent him flying across the grass to the point where he tumbled. Every inch he decided to move, he felt like he was inching closer to the Grim Reaper taking his soul. A foot turned him over to where he was laying on his stomach, where, through his blurry vision, he saw the Fool. Blood streaming down from his bottom lip, a cut on his forehead, his exposed face spoke a thousand words. The final sentence Ben Rivera, the Fool, spoke toward the Smoldering Warrior of the Future,
"Looks like your Superiors picked the wrong guy for the mission, and your attempt to capture us was useless, in the end," The tip of The Fool's fist broke his skull, and then... black. The time had come for his demise to be the truth he had been running from, at the hands of the group; the Protectors. For the last time in his life, he had awakened, in a void of space, a pocket dimension in the Universe where time didn't pass and nothing mattered. This was the power of Blanketing, the new power of the Empress, Madisyn. The Fortune's body laid broken and beaten, Henry was sure of it, this man was no stranger. Questions lingered in the air, why did this man resemble who he had believed to be his father? Why were their eyes the same shade and why were they psychically connected?
"He's awake!" El exclaimed. Everyone had turned their attention to the middle of this dimension where the Warrior's body laid dormant, flat, and chained. The daggers in his throat that had prevented him from making out complete sentences had been stolen back by their originator, and their electrical charge had been returned to the Priestess. The Moon inquired the brown-haired man,
"Speak, dickhead, who the fuck are you?" Now was the time for a revelation, the time for the truth to be revealed about the heritage of this mysterious Being. And he complied, he didn't fight back or struggle, all the Warrior did was speak,
"My name is Henry Colon, from the 26th Century year 2536, I was sent 9 months ago to ensure the creation of superhumans in this reality. That way we-they would be able to dominate the rest of the World and achieve Heaven as God sees fit. While I brought back you superhumans to my Superiors, I had also intended to bring you all back. I was told to wait for several months to ensure that you harness your abilities so they wouldn't have to do the work so that when you were ready, they would capture you with ease. Turns out, you're much more powerful than I thought... I hope you can defeat the Kingdom and bring about peace in my World. Artemis--" His head was cut off his shoulders, blood squirting out of the wound before the body fell back. The Warrior had been executed by the Magician of Ice, Matthew Miller, his hand tightly squeezing the grip of the tundra-cold ax.
"He... he killed my family," The day had come to an abrupt end at the murder of the Smoldering Warrior of the Future, though he had been twisted and manipulated by the forces of this unknown Kingdom, it was clear he regretted his malicious actions of hate and violence. May he rest in peace and may the light of the Future guide him to a better tomorrow. As for the Protectors, they remained fractured at the thought of Henry having turned into something like that. How would they deal with this revelation of the Future has been such a terrible fate for all of them?
A Card Telling You The Future Has Been Flipped
The Awakened Power Inside Of You Will Be Your Guide
Well, Let's Get Started