But Ace didn't have the time to continue to wallow, instead, he took action. For the fire in the heart raged outside, the flames of nature took form in the windows of the Opera House, and though normally he would nonchalantly continue to gaze upon his failure, this time, he couldn't. Instead, that voice cried out to him, begging for help, pleading for assistance, the person he was, he had no other choice but to run inside. What he found surprised him: Kelly Summers, trapped under flaming debris, shirt in shambles as she stuck out her hand to his silhouette behind the flaming wall.
"HELP! PLEASE, SAVE ME!!!"
The next thing she knew, his feet landed outside, and she could be placed down, this time, onto the steps leading to the destroyed base. Neither of them had time to relax, as they both stared at the endless darkness pouring out her hovering figure, Kelly shook herself out of this daze and reassumed a standing stance, leading Ace to grab her wrist.
"Don't. Being near me is the only safe space; I can't guarantee your survival if you go any further."
Though his actions were heroic, the persona of a savior remained null, as his emotionless eyes stared ahead, he recognized the same thing she'd abruptly pointed to, squinting to examine his face's shape. To his surprise and utter confusion, there he was, none other than his mentor, limping out the storm then collapsing onto the steps.
"What the... what the hell!? How're you even alive?!" Ace cried with tears in his eyes, attempting to tend to his injuries, but was pushed away by Kelly as she worked instead.
"He... no, Callum... still has plans for me. He sent an illusion into your mind to get her crazy. But now that she has... agh, I doubt she'll ever stop," 'Alex' explained, groaning as the stitch twisted around his open skin, dripping blood.
"Wait, how the hell's you even talkin' normally! A few minutes ago, when I saw you in there, you were just a puppet! You had no idea what was happening and you even had your aura up with me registered as a hostile. You're not Alex... are you?" Ace's fist flashed red, Amara chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Heh. Nothing gets past you, huh?"
The illusion fell as easily as a smokescreen revealing his scarred face, but just before that fist could inch closer, he was blown back and into the railing via an invisible strike to his chest.
"Before I killed Alex, I absorbed the rest of his powers. I plan on fighting you before this all ends and I enact my orchestration, however, I'm going to get healed before I do. After I've fully rejuvenated, I want to fight, not because I hate you, but because... I need a position on Riot."
All Ace could offer as a response to the villain's statement was a simple,
"What?"
"With enough time, Katie will come to envelop everything on this Island, piece by piece, second by second, a new life is lost; a new creation destroyed. None of you have the power to defeat her, especially not with Hana immobilized and Alexander dead. When you flee here, bring me with you," Callum suggested, offering a half-baked grin with closed eyes, but just before he could react in time, Kelly yelped and she was forced into a headlock.
"WAIT-!"
"Give me ONE GOOD REASON NOT TO KILL THIS BITCH RIGHT HERE! GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON NOT TO KILL YOU RIGHT HERE AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE!!!"
"Because... I... I still have things I want to protect. I don't wish for this place to fade, not yet, so please... let her go."
Ace complied immediately, not for the sake of the Founder's begging, but for the ceasing of Summers' frightened whine. Retracting his arm covering her neck, she ran on over with tears in her eyes to Callum's side, the latter watching as Wilder knelt beside his face.
"You still have things you want to protect and you don't wish for this place to fade, and yet, you're the one who unleashed this plague upon the Island. What makes you think for a SECOND that I'd let you be a part of Riot, especially with that beast inside you?"
"I don't expect you to understand, Wilder, so that's why we're going to fight it out. If I win, I'm on the team, and if I shall lose, I'll leave you all alone and make a new plan. Speaking of which-"
Neck cracked back into place, the exposed cauterizations reattached the missing flesh, clenching his fist and blowing away hair from covering his face, the Founder now glared at the shorter ginger.
"Let us begin."
In an instant, they were atop the Opera House, Ace on the far left, Callum on the far right, the latter casually stretching while the ginger looked around with a literal question mark levitating above his head.
"I never agreed to this shit!" He yelled to the Founder.
However, Rivers feigned deafness, stretching repeatedly before the match started. As unknowing as Ace was, instead of considering the variables Cal had up his sleeve, thinking in terms of the linear battle seconds away from commencing, he volleyed the opposite.
'I need to find the others, maybe if I can see them, I can call Azazel to my side, that way, we can manage to beat him together... then deal with Katie!'
He was unaware to the world that surrounded him was nothing more than a backdrop for the starting fight, it mattered not, for mere milliseconds dared to pass, and there he was, appearing right behind Ace in less time it took the heart to beat. The King could just barely roll away, but the Founder took no time to wait, smashing where Ace landed with his knuckles, forming a hole below his fist. Now in the air, the Scarlet King felt his eyes switch, the patterns fading for Divergence to mark a light trail as he descended with a closed fist.
To his surprise, the Founder ascended instead, grabbing the fist then covering Ace's eyes with his free hand, launching the ginger into the skies, into the clouds. Wilder floundered around without control, just barely recapturing his balance so he could raise his arms and block that incoming fist. The surrounding clouds, with a thunderous shockwave resonating from the impact, were immediately washed away, leaving Callum to follow up with more.
'These hits are... weaker?'
If he had the time to be thinking this casually without using Eternal Sight's enhancements to his advantage, something must've been wrong- maybe a miscalculation on the Founder's part. Or maybe that was his perception working at hyperspeed, blinded by the smears of his hands striking away his chest. Each wet snap sent a natural groan to escape his lips, a tiger fist connected to his ribs, another shockwave sending him away so he could bounce from cloud to cloud.
'I'm just... a fucking ragdoll.'
Before he knew it, Callum caught the redhead by the hood of his sweater, allowing him to gawk at the considerable distance they were, away from the Earth. In the mere minute since the start of the fight, not only had Ace not landed a single hit, but he'd received multiple broken ribs in the blink of an eye. As the Founder resumed his indiscriminate frenzy of blows, he would find his crimson-eyed opponent's conscience to flee, wandering the wasteland of his brain as more blood entered the sky and made its descent upon the Earth. In time, a punch to the face sent Ace into the Opera House, destroying it completely, and leaving the Scarlet King atop all that rubble, face covered with nothing but his
blood.
Sinking deeply into unconsciousness, Ace mustered one last chuckle while Callum claimed a thunderous landing.
'I am so weak...'
"Just kill me already," The King muffledly uttered, buried beneath a grave of debris, the Founder found himself curious.
'He's still alive?'
"Not happening, I still need you alive so the others can realize I have no ulterior motive. I only did that to show you that you need my strength, not to mention you're a stubborn fool. I'll heal you now."
The charred pillars, marked by the raging fire, disintegrated, leaving only Ace, lying in a pool of his blood. Beaten and battered by his attempts on the young man's life, the events of another time almost forgotten resurged, to remind him… of what he stood for. In the seconds before his healing touch graced Ace's shattered spirit, Callum was distracted, not by another external force, but rather, by the reflection of himself. The sins of the past, the ghosts that haunted him for the decisions he made, were they all in vain?
The lives he sacrificed, the potential he extinguished- how could he have done such a thing? How could he have unleashed such homicidal beasts, not once, but twice? Was this where his ambition led him? Was this the righteous end he'd hoped for, all those years ago? Just one broken man, desiring to put an end to the oppression of the corrupt society, but one look in the mirror was all it took for him to realize the truth.
"I…"
He'd been idle for quite some time now, enough time to realize that Ace had vanished, and instead, he was surrounded by the many members of the merciless Riot, their fangs gleaming at the sight of their prey… he raised his arms and called a surrender.
'There are so many things I wish I could say to you all, so many apologies and so many regrets I have, stored within my heart. This was never what I wanted…. I always wished for a better world, beyond the torture of the regular oppressive society everyone was forced to obey. But, in the end, absolute power corrupts absolutely. In my current state, I'm not a God, I'm just the same as I've always been. A mere hypocrite wishing for things to change and always making them worse in the process. I am sorry… for things turning out this way- everyone.'
Unfortunately for everyone, the Chaos Center operation turned out to be a massive failure, and without anything remaining for them to stay behind for, everyone took their leave on the same boat they'd arrived on. Now, with two prisoners, an immobilized Master, but missing one person. The storm's clouds would engulf everything in itself, to burn and singe everything to the ground, all by the hand of one girl who bore it all. The weight of the past and the hope of the future unleashed into a wave of darkness that would send death- to all.
To Be Continued.