by Vee Bosse
“Stay down, fool!!” yelled King as a blazing red energy exploded from his fist right after impact, sending Dylan flying at a furious pace into a distant mound.
His black fedora had stood no chance of staying with its owner, as the force exerted from Dee’s fist left his hat and staff tumbling ahead of the attacker. “There you go. Stay down,” Dee added, turning around to see Revenant meet his end. The staff had pierced through Revenant seconds ago, and the entire team couldn’t help but feel an unparalleled level of pride in realizing that their resistance looked to be strong enough to take down opponents as terribly strong as they were. Revenant coughed up blood, signaling that they had managed to pierce the nearly-immortal government official’s heart.
Haynes let go of the commander, who immediately fell to his knees. The team members that were successful in taking him down surrounded him, anxiously waiting to see his last breath.
“Ugh,” Revenant uttered, suddenly grabbing ahold of the spear while wincing in pain.
“We did it!! We actually beat him!” Laran declared, in surprised ecstasy at the sight of their seemingly defeated foe. Just then, it was Christian, Dane, and Westin who appeared to get a glimpse of the near-death commander.
“Great, and it looks like Jassa is nearly done preparing her antidote,” Christian said, feeling immensely thankful that their plan worked perfectly in avoiding any casualties.
Dane walked over to Dee who had crossed his arms in satisfaction, watching on to make sure Dylan stayed down for good. “Hey, I reckon I should thank you for taking care of him like you did. We got em, man!” Dane said with his usual southern drawl, as Dee nodded approvingly back at him.
“So, what is our next destinat,” Dee was interrupted by an odd feeling in his chest, as he reached to feel what the sudden and sharp pain could have been.
Dane had also realized the same sharp pain that Dee had felt, looking down to see what had happened. Just as they had been looking on, they noticed Dylan had raised his battered and bloody arm towards his two lethal opponents. They could now see his face clearly since his fedora had gone flying away at the force of Dee’s crimson punch, and they gazed upon his unkempt and sandy blonde hair along with his menacing frown of frustration.
“No more games. Will you all...adapt?” he said, barely able to talk in the injured state he was in after colliding with a large rock on the beach mound that he had been sent flying into.
Christian turned around, the team suddenly worried at seeing their leader’s eyes grow disturbingly shocked and troubled.
“Dane! Dee King!!” he screamed, gazing at two massive holes in each of their chests. Dane coughed up blood as his Desert Eagles he had been holding at the time left his grip, falling to the sand below. They were barely able to turn their heads backwards, glaring for one last time at their friends before falling limply to the ground. Jassa screamed in panic as she and Christian rushed over to them, both on the verge of tears.
“Damn...damn! Damnit, no!!! Jassa, please, you have to save them! NOW!!” Christian yelled to the doctor, as she examined their grievous wounds.
“Christian, this energy that has pierced clear through their chests...my all-cures aren’t able to cancel this out!” Jassa choked up as she realized that in the blink of an eye, her plan had become hopeless.
“Upon receiving my Emerald Radiance technique a half-century ago, not only was I able to turn a regular staff into an all-powerful weapon that defied physics itself, I also gained a power that rivaled Revenant’s petrification. My psych energy ability is ten times more powerful than Andrea Sweet’s,” Dylan said, gazing in satisfaction as the rest of the team felt a surge of despair come over them. Their two friends had instantly fallen to their opponents, and they were powerless to stop it.
Revenant suddenly let out a furious scream in pain, ripping out Kasper’s spear on brute force alone. “You’ll all pay for this!!” the commander exclaimed, reaching his hand out towards the surprised few that were still surrounding their foe. They had been overcome by the sudden feeling of shock and grief upon the loss of precious teammates, and even the blind Kasper realized that something terrible had just happened. The distraction seemingly kept him from reacting quickly enough though, as Revenant’s speed in lunging forward at him proved to be too much for Kasper to dodge.
Laran, Milli, Westin, Haynes, and Benedict gazed in horror as their opponent had wrapped his hand tightly around Kasper’s neck, strong enough to lift him off the ground in frightening power.
“Kasper, hold on!” Milli yelled, sending acid tipped arrows at Revenant; she was trying to get him to release his death grip. But the commander only laughed menacingly, while the arrows themselves dissolved at the burning effect that the near-immortal’s flesh and skeleton began to emit.
It was yet another desperately terrible sight to behold, when Revenant seemed to absorb Kasper’s very own life force into his own massacred body, instantly healing the fatal wounds that had appeared from their amazing attacks earlier. They watched as the blind sensor suddenly stopped writhing in pain from Revenant’s death grip, becoming limp while his sunglasses cracked.
“Kasper!” Christian and Jassa heard the team yell behind them, turning away from the sight of Dylan to see the Revenant had just taken Kasper’s life to save his own.
“Kasper,” Christian muttered, his eyes looking like his sanity had just been plunged into the ocean right next to them; he fell to his knees next to an inconsolable Dr. Jassa.
“This...can’t be happening!” she screamed, as Revenant arrogantly released his choke hold on Kasper; he let him fall limply to the ground below.
“Is their power really this far above ours?!” Laran asked, with hopelessness now setting in amongst the remaining rebels that had been lucky in avoiding petrification or death.
They had just lost Dane, Dee, and Kasper when Revenant had leapt over to his massacred partner in a flash, leaving the devastated team to gaze at their fallen comrades.
“I can’t believe you let them do a number on you like this, Dylan. You look like shit right now,” the commander said as he put his hand on Dylan’s shoulder, healing him with his life transference ability.
“Maybe we underestimated em’, but whatever. We’ll finish them all, here and now,” said Dylan who was able to stand up, looking perfectly unharmed once again, despite his clothes now being tattered like Revenant’s uniform also had become.
Christian and Jassa turned around to find their fearsome opponents preparing to attack them again. “I...I was helpless to save them...again,” said Christian as he began to shake with a disturbed look of intensity and anger. “I was so...POWERLESS!!!!” Christian screamed in fury, releasing a shockwave of energy that was powerful enough to blow Jassa away. The doctor seemed to be unconscious from its impact as Revenant, Dylan, and his remaining teammates braced themselves against its harsh impact.
It was a mighty wave, and Christian having lost his mental awareness of his surroundings screamed in fury as he turned to the sea, somehow commanding a massive amount of water to come on shore. The massive tidal wave surged itself high in the air in his opponent’s direction, while Dylan threw his hands forward. The water got blasted away with his psych barrier, falling in the area around them instead.
“Did you just...command the water to attack us!?” Revenant screamed in trepidation, while Christian turned his gaze up to the sky. His friends all stared on, utterly amazed at the sight of storm clouds suddenly brewing above them. They all gasped when a lightning bolt slammed down, hitting their inconsolable leader’s extended hand.
“Aghh!!!” Christian screamed, as the lightning had ignited a brilliant white energy that he seemed to be able to control in the palm of his hand on will alone. “Protect...THEM!!” the crazed elemental wielder yelled, suddenly casting the energy directly at his two oppressors.
“This is?!” Dylan said in surprised horror, as he bolstered his psych shield down as hard as he possibly could, straining in frustration at the
frightening power of the lightning bolt that had been sent their way. “Revenant, do you see this!!! Ha, do you see this!? Ugh,” Dylan collapsed suddenly, seemingly having reached a point of exhaustion after being injured earlier.
The commander stepped forward with a panic that had never been able to enter his mind before, “Christian Rivers...is the reincarnation of Bain! His is our nightmare realized all over again. I will stop him, at any costs!!!”
Just as Revenant had declared his horror at the sight of only the second all-powerful elemental wielder in history appearing before them, Christian suddenly slammed his hands into the sand, causing a quicksand swamp to magically be conjured right below his opponent’s feet. “Damn! He’s going to send us below, the same way that bastard did to all of the helpless citizens of the world long ago!” said the commander, while he and Dylan’s feet had been instantly caught in its inescapable grip before they could leap into the air.
“Dylan, hold your breath! I’ll get us out of this to deliver justice. Just hang on,” Revenant said, as Dylan’s apathetic and carefree attitude had been replaced by one of focused desperation. They sunk underground, as an ominous silence overtook the beach among the morning sun and the choppy waves of the sea. The remainder of Christian’s team was still breathing heavily, as the adrenaline of witnessing nature’s disastrous power being commanded right before their eyes consumed them. They felt a fear in the back of their heads that they might be collateral damage.
“Listen, guys! We need to gain some distance from Christian! He is rampaging, and I don’t know if we will be able to talk any sense into him!” Haynes yelled, as the rest of the team nodded their heads in fear. They prepared themselves to speed away, when something stopped them dead in their tracks.
“I’ll bring them fire, and bake them below!!!” Christian yelled, conjuring a fireball out of mid-air in his hands. Suddenly, he felt a hand clasp his ankle tightly. “Hey!” Christian said, before becoming petrified in an instant. The typhoon of elemental energy suddenly dissipated as it violently dispersed in the air surrounding the beach.
The team saw their last remaining leader freeze in place along with the rest of their statuesque friends. Milli fell to her knees in tears, staring despondently as Dylan launched himself above ground using his psych energy, also propelling Revenent to the surface along with him.
“No, not Christian too,” said Laran, as they saw their hopes dwindling once again before their eyes.
Dylan suddenly smiled curiously as he stared at a petrified Christian. “Yeah, just like I had hoped.”
“We won’t kill him now, despite how grave of a threat he is. You will shatter him in front of a worldwide audience, for the glory of the Western Latitude,” said Revenant, who seemingly disregarded Dylan’s words. The two turned around to look at the miniscule number of remaining combatants that defied them.
“Take em’ out, I’ve wasted enough time here already waiting for them to adapt,” said Dylan as Revenant suddenly pulled a bone out of his arm in a manner that caused the team to recoil in confusion and disgust.
“Adaptation? No, we won’t let that happen Dylan!” declared Revenant in response to his partner’s directive, as the bones in his arm formed into a spiral spear, transforming his hand entirely. The elite then pointed his spiral bone spear at the remaining rebels ahead of them, declaring with a purpose, “It’s been awhile since I have been forced to use this. Red Ash Embers technique,” The commander’s bone spear suddenly seemed to explode, disintegrating into fine particles spreading all throughout the beach above.
“What should we do? Haynes?” asked Westin in desperation as Laran and Milli drew close to each other, not knowing when their death might come. Benedict gazed at Jassa who was still unconscious ahead of them on the beach, knocked out from Christian’s earlier shockwave.
“Bullocks, can’t just stand here waiting to go to pasture!!” the Welshman said with a look of desperate intensity, raising both of his arms up with his index fingers positioned for his Aura Gunshot.
“Be petrified,” Revenant declared, snapping his fingers right before Benedict could take a shot at them. There was no time for the team to panic; it was over in an instant. They were all instantly petrified with the snap of the commander’s fingers, with his bone particles seemingly transporting his petrification aura all throughout the surrounding air. Jassa, Benedict, Westin, Laran, Milli, and Haynes joined their other fallen comrades in becoming stone statues, helpless to rebel against Revenant and Dylan’s fearsome abilities.
“It’s finished, but I’ll stick to my original plan of transporting them to the execution arena in the California Territory. I’ll summon my government warships to this place for transport right now.” Dylan nodded at Revenant’s words, deciding that this assistance was no longer needed there.
“Got some things to do. Have fun with that.” he said, pulling out the remaining half of his Jigsaw Staff from his suit pocket. “See ya. This time I’m teleporting away for real.” With that, Dylan made his staff disappear as his hands clapped together, thus disappearing from sight indefinitely.
Revenant scoffed at Dylan’s haphazard attitude as he pulled out the familiar tablet device from his back pocket, tapping a few buttons to summon his Western Latitude fleet for prisoner transportation. “This is my continent, and you are all unwelcome here. Time to go,” the commander said as he suddenly looked up in absolute shock before he could tap the final button to send his fleet on their way.
“What, what is this?!” Revenant suddenly looked up completely shocked, watching as Westin’s petrified form began to crumble. Westin Anderson emerged from his stone shell, in his unharmed form once again. He looked as though he himself was unaware of how he escaped from the petrification that had locked everyone else into a hopeless position. “Right now, you’re going to tell me how you still stand before me, when every one of your fellow subjects has fallen at our hands, ANSWER ME!” Revenant screamed, furious at one rebel’s continued defiance against all odds.
Westin continued to stand in front of his opponent, shocked and speechless. “You people, who are officially the biggest threat to world peace in this planet’s history, you alone now continue to stand when you know that you’re just going to die! It’s hopeless! Stop fighting, NOW!!!” Revenant’s livid fury in urging Westin to immediately give up didn’t seem to faze him at all. Westin then looked up to the stunning morning sky, appearing to have realized something inside of him.
“I feel it now, the same feeling I felt back at Haven Island before we escaped. I can see your life force, in the palm of my hands.” The Commander’s fury suddenly erupted upon hearing Westin’s confusing remark, as he leapt forward with an expression of pure hatred and resentment. Westin didn’t even consider dodging his approach as Revenant put both hands around Westin’s neck, lifting him off the ground to kill him in the same fashion that had ended Kasper’s life.
“Enough! Die, worm!” screamed the commander as he began to steal Westin’s life force. Westin suddenly raised his hand in front of Revenant’s face, extending it gently to touch his forehead.
“As retribution for our fellow subjects, and the millions of Australians that you and Dylan have killed in cold blood...I’m sorry, Revenant. I’m forced to do this.” Westin seemed to instantly extinguish Revenant’s life force somehow, as the commander suddenly felt his heart’s rhythm begin to cease. He gasped in pain, releasing his chokehold on Westin as he fell to his knees.
“This...it can’t end like this...the world needs me,” Revenant said, suddenly realizing that a third eye had seemingly opened out of nowhere on Westin’s forehead. The eye spewed a black and red energy, locking gazes with the defeated elite as his life had been snuffed out with a single glance.
The sound of Revenant’s silence came as a selfish relief to Westin’s ears, as the commander fell face first into the sand. It was an impossible task, and the team had been utterly defeated, despite using all of their respective abilities. They were supposed to
be crushed, sent away for slaughter so that the world may continue to enjoy the false peace that it had come to enjoy. That’s what had to happen.
Yet, in the end, Westin Anderson and the Resistance had become the world’s new reality. The death of Commander Felix Revenant, along with every other Haven Island elite that had existed to stop them had meant that the Resistance could now shake the planet. A new history could now emerge for their world.
Westin gazed around at his petrified colleagues, taking a moment to mourn his three unpetrified friends who had been struck down for good. “Oh no,” Westin said, as he suddenly collapsed to the ground. He was completely unconscious along with the rest of his friends now, as using his Death Energy for the first time had brought his body to its limit. They couldn’t possibly know that they, in the end, were victorious that morning against the strongest foes that were far beyond their imaginations. Fate had been shattered into millions of pieces.
Chapter Eleven
Japan
The sun was now only a few hours from setting, and Westin had remained unconscious the entire time up until then, along with all his petrified friends. If anyone was in a position to be able to feel worry, they would have been slighted by the fact that Reylina and Melas had never sailed back to the beachfront where the massive conflict had taken place. Yet suddenly, there was a fleet of hoverships that appeared in place of the ones that had brought them to Melbourne. It was a large fleet of fast moving hoverers that flew the flag of the Eastern Latitude.
The ships quickly docked at the beach next to the petrified team as an African man with an average stature stepped out of the biggest ship of them all. His uniform had a silver sash that was slightly less decorated than Xu Xinling’s attire, and he carried himself in an extremely proud and exuberant manner.
“General Maputo, we stopped researching here at the Australian wasteland several years ago. The land surely screams in joy at the sight of your gallant return,” said his assistant who wore a black Japanese kimono, with a golden needle that held her shimmering black hair in a well-endowed knot. She adjusted her dark blue glasses, which contrasted with the fact that her general had little decoration about him; his short and black hair gave him a dignified look in the midst of his oddly exuberant mannerisms.
