The First: EVO Uprising

by Kipjo Ewers

  “Dear Lord,” she said, “I’m too old for this shit.”

  The hairs on her neck stood to attention as something screamed for her to move.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what was left of the Yukon they fought on coming toward her guided by and cackling airborne Nachzehrer.

  She rolled out of the way thwarting her attempt to crush her with it. The vehicle folded like an accordion as it smashed into the concrete of the ball court.

  The older woman on her feet again covered up as a younger faster Nachzehrer began to batter her with what was left of the SUV. Shareef with her guard up tanked some of the shots looking for an opening. She miscalculated dropping her defense for a second taking a face full of wrecked SUV, knocking her into a violent and awkward tailspin. Her skull was the first to hit the pavement. On instinct, she rolled to her hands and knees despite her vision going blurry. She was unprepared for her bringing the wrecked SUV down on top of her. A wide-eyed drooling Nachzehrer delivered a secondary blow for good measure.

  With one arm, she pulled the wreckage off Shareef as onlookers cursed and screamed at her from afar. Shareef once again on her hands and knees continued to fight to rise. Blood from healing open wounds dripped from her skull, nose, and mouth. Her body trembled in pain despite her regenerative healing working to help her recover.

  Nachzehrer snapped off a steel beam from the undercarriage of the SUV. It was not a clean break producing a sharp jagged edge. She ran the edge a couple of times across the concrete of the ball court to make it even sharper. She then sashayed around with it in her grip taunting Shareef.

  “You know… I could give two shits what Peace says.” She raised her left hand into a fist. “The only true master race is the one with this color!”

  She bolted delivering a savage punt kick to Shareef’s ribcage lifting her several feet off the ground. She hit back first emitting an agonizing groan as she clutched her ribs. Nachzehrer could have field goal kicked her out of the court. She held back wanting everyone around to see what she was about to do next.

  She dropped down onto Shareef’s chest pinning her upper arms by the biceps. She then grabbed Shareef by her dreads lifting her head up a bit, running the sharp edge of her makeshift shiv across her face.

  “And I’m going to make it my business to finally exterminate you knuckle dragging…” Nachzehrer began to yell.

  Her speech of hatred screeched to a halt as her eyes widened while her entire body quivered.

  Shareef removed her hand from Nachzehrer’s left thigh to reveal an ion body damper attached to it sending thousands of volts of electricity directly into her nervous system overloading it. During her beating, she was able to pull one out from one of the compartments in her forearm bands. Lady Tech instructed her that for it to be one hundred percent effective, it had to be attached to the back of the neck so that it could deliver the charged pulse to the spinal cord, cerebellum, and brain.

  However, in Sister Shareef’s current situation, she figured nerves were still nerves in any part of the body.

  “What’s that?” Shareef grinned. “I can’t quite hear the shit coming out your mouth.”

  She delivered her own backhand to Nachzehrer knocking her off her which sent the shiv in her hand flying. Shareef sprung back to her vertical base grabbing her by her Mohawk pulling her to her feet. She made the end quick and fast as she hammered both sides of her jaws with thunderous lefts and rights followed by spine blowing gut check doubling her over. Measuring her up, she exploded with a neck-breaking uppercut lifting her ten feet into the air. Another chorus of “Oooooooh!” rang out from the onlookers witnessing the knockout punch.

  Nachzehrer came back down on the back of her neck folding like a lawn chair for about a second; she flipped over onto her face never to rise.

  “She got knocked the you know what out,” nodded an elderly woman from afar.

  “That’s the problem with you kids today,” Shareef huffed, “you talk too darn much.”

  Nachzehrer groaned in agony as Shareef pulled out another ion body damper from her bracer slapping it down on the back of her neck completely incapacitating her.

  “One more to grow on, ya nasty heffa,” Shareef scowled.

  She stood tall cracking her neck and back while collecting herself as onlookers howled and cheered her on. She looked toward the skies praying that Sophia, and everyone else, were as successful as she was in her mission.

  CHAPTER 24

  The violent rhythmic clanging of blades echoed throughout the streets of DC as the Ghoul and Shintobe fought to see who would slice the other into ribbons.

  Their swords moved at such blinding speeds, sparks spurted in the midst of the exchange. It was hard to tell who was on the offensive and defensive. Both combatants stood their ground unleashing a hailstorm of slashing moves from various angles to score a deep cut. Neither one attempted a thrust, nor parry, for Ghoul he probably believed any over the top attempts would leave him open to Shintobe taking his head for a trophy.

  It also did not sit too well within him that her mask shrouded her face making it impossible for him to read her. Her poker face body movements frustrated him as well. Even though this was clearly vengeance for her, she did not attack like someone looking for blood. She moved as if she was performing a dance or playing an instrument. She was not rushing to deliver death to him; she was slowly leading him to it with a waltz.

  Ghoul snarled as he thought he found and opening. He went for a diagonal downward slash, slicing her in half from her left collarbone through to her right hip.

  Had she been standing in the way of his blade.

  Shintobe simply moved into the Ghoul’s personal space getting face-to- face with him and out of the range of his machetes. She then kissed him with a vicious mask enforced headbutt to the nose staggering him. Shintobe came off her feet like a ballerina and delivered a jumping front kick to his chest with the force of shotgun.

  It took him off his feet plowing him back first into a brick wall caving it in. He fell to one knee still clutching his machetes. Pieces of broken brick fell from his imprint behind him breaking to smaller pieces as they hit the concrete. His left hand nursed his chest as he spat blood on the ground. Slowly he looked up at a waiting Shintobe rearing his fangs.

  “Why am I not surprised,” he hissed. “Ya probably wank off with those things.”

  “Yeah, and if you were going to live to see tomorrow,” Shintobe returned. “Guy Ritchie would be suing you for stealing his shit. Lucky for you… you won’t. So how about we get this over with, I got a bath waiting for me to scrub off your funk.”

  “The only one taking a bath is me, bitch.” Ghoul rose to his feet. “In your blood!”

  Shintobe erupted with laughter from underneath her mask.

  “You’re gonna bath in my blood!” she mocked him. “Dude, seriously, how long have you been waiting to use that cliché line?”

  Ghoul howled going rabid as he launched himself toward her. Shintobe stood her ground meeting him head on, as he went into a berserker rage attack. Their second clash was more savage than the first with Ghoul increasing his offensive.

  Shintobe’s speed increased as well to match his ferocity but not his demeanor. She was as cold as ice. Something else she was doing both disturbed Ghoul and pushed his rage to a fever pitch. Through all of the clanging of steel, he was sure she was singing the hook to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” under her mask.

  Five seconds more the fencing contest that would make the most skilled masters faint ended as Shintobe did a simple duck, spin, and tumble roll back onto her feet and out of the range of the Ghoul’s blades again. This time, she turned her back to him.

  “It’s over,” Shintobe sighed, “say ‘hi’ to the devil for me while he’s cornholing you.”

  “What do you mean it’s over you…” a bewildered and enraged Ghoul spat.

  He would not finish his sentence as both his forearms detached from the rest of his arms still clutchin
g his machetes.

  “Impossible…” he stammered. “Your swords don’t have…”

  A gust of wind blew off his entire hood while his head fell from his shoulders. His torso was the last to fall separating in half from his left collarbone to his right hip leaving him nothing more than body parts in a pool of blood.

  “In the words of the most legendary speedster to grace this planet,” a victorious Shintobe raised her head, “Beep, Beep.”

  With a sonic boom she rocketed off in the direction of the battle between the heroic Egyptian, Revenant, and Wendigo tearing apart portions of DC. She knew vengeance would not bring her friend back, but she prayed it would help her rest better in peace.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  The skies of Washington DC roared with sound greater than thunder. People cowered as they watched their sky abused with unearthly energies wielded by beings battling against one another.

  Revenant channeling dark matter energies unleashed it with sinister intent at the Eye of Ra, who deflected volley after volley with his staff. He returned fire with a powerful cosmic blast of his own. Revenant strafed away to avoid the hit unconfident that he could tank the stream with his protective shielding as it scorched the very air itself.

  Ra powered up to let off another volley until Wendigo’s sonic attack forced him to go on the defensive. His energy shielding weathered the storm of the sonic sound of “Into the Fire” by Disturbed beating down on him while tearing apart the tops and sides of buildings below raining down debris and glass into the streets. Revenant found the opening he needed to create a massive animated dark matter construct of a hellhound the size of a tank that he mentally controlled. It lunged at him moving with twice the speed and force of a bullet train plowing him into the top floor of a small building taking out the first three top floors.

  The dark matter beast on command from his creator clawed and snapped at its prey trying to rip him to shreds. Wendigo hovered next to Revenant to take in the view of the slaughter.

  They levitated there like proud parents watching their child at play until an Earth quaking surge of bright white and gold energy tore through Revenant’s pet turning it into the atoms it was created from.

  The couple’s morbid grins disappeared as the Eye of Ra looked up at them. They could not tell if he had a displeased look on his face because a golden face mask of a human face one would find on an ancient Egyptian statue now covered his visage. He gripped his staff charging it with the raw energy he used to obliterate the hellhound construct.

  “Interesting.” Revenant narrowed his eyes.

  The Eye of Ra took to the air once again torpedoing right toward them forcing them to separate.

  The sadistic couple attacked him again on both his flanks. With the use of a portal, he disappeared, evading both of their attacks sending their volleys at one another causing them to scatter again.

  During this time Shintobe now on the scene gunned it at full speed running up the side of a skyscraper. Getting high enough, she leapt off with sword cocked and ready to remove Revenant’s head from his body when a protective Wendigo unleashed a sonic blast knocking her away from her target.

  Shintobe twisted and turned recovering in midair going into a dive. Seconds before she impacted the ground, she performed a high speed tumble roll, relying on her enhanced durability and regenerative healing to save her.

  Springing back to her feet, she tore through the streets of Washington as a furious Wendigo gave chase.

  As Revenant watched the scene unfold, he was unaware of the Eye of Ra appearing out of a portal to his right side. With a powerful swing from his staff he swatted him out of the sky sending him through several buildings impacting an unmanned city bus in the streets below. Thanks to his dark shielding protecting him from the fatal blow, he slowly staggered to his feet swaying.

  There would be no rest for the wicked as the Eye of Ra came crashing down on top of him with high-powered staff reared back looking to crush him with a single strike. Revenant quickly launched himself back into the sky barely evading the blow that obliterated what was left of the totaled bus and the street it sat on.

  “You’re… you’re mad…” Revenant shuddered looking down at him. “You’re bloody mad!”

  Now desperate with fear he unleashed rapid fire volley at the Egyptian demigod who tanked the shots by twirling his staff in a cross pattern reminiscent of Shaolin monks from old Kung-fu movies. Tired of being on the defensive he launched himself into the sky barreling towards Revenant spooking the fight out of him and forcing him to take flight.

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  Back at the island Maxine successfully guided all of the villagers to the far side of the island away from the battle. As she stood guard maintaining a protective perimeter, Earl and the other council members began taking a headcount to ensure no one was lost or left behind during the journey.

  During the count Kimberly looked around realizing some people were missing.

  “Kyle?” His mother looked around confirming her suspicions. “Kyle! Where are you? Kyle!”

  “What happened?” his father asked. “Where is he?”

  “I saw him keeping up with us!” she screamed frantically. “Joseph, where is your brother?”

  “He was with me a second ago!” shrugged his now nervous older brother.

  “Akram!” his mother also cried out in her native tongue, “Akram! Are you here? Where are you? Akram!”

  “Idiots!” Kimberly muttered under her breath rolling her eyes.

  She had an idea where they were, despite all of the chaos she had a feeling the comic book buffs would not pass up a chance to see a real live superhuman battle regardless of the danger.

  “I think I know where the Dynamic Doofuses are.” She turned to Earl. “I’m going after them.”

  “Negative,” Maxine turned, overhearing her. “It is far too dangerous. I will…”

  “Too late,” Kimberly cut her off.

  With a superhuman leap she was gone landing almost a mile into the jungle and proceeded to run on foot in search for her friends.

  “Miss, I have located Ms. Dennison’s daughter,” Maxine reported to Lady Tech. “She’s heading back into the jungle to search for two boys unaccounted for during the evacuation.”

  “Why’d you let her go?” yelled Erica.

  “Ms. Dennison failed to mention that her daughter currently possesses Titan level abilities,” Maxine indicated, “possibly beyond.”

  “Then stay there!” Erica shot back, “we’re doing everything possible to keep the Draugr on the beach and bring him down! She should be okay searching for them until then!”

  ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

  It took Kimberly a minute to get within three yards of the village again. She put on the brakes as her heart twisted while her stomach turned to the jolting sound of intense battle on the beach.

  “Kyle! Akram,” she screamed, “where are you guys? Kyle! Akram!”

  She wore a face of fret fearing that they were somewhere hurt and alone. In the short time they got to know each other, the two managed to grow on her. She stood deciding to either check the village or move toward the fighting when she heard the familiar screeching of Sir George.

  Running toward the sound, she hid her misting eyes with a hand swipe.

  Strolling up to her as if it was just another regular day was the duo walking side by side with Sir George sitting on Kyle’s shoulder.

  Her relief quickly turned to anger as she stomped over to them.

  “You blockheads!” she screamed at them. “Your parents are worried sick about you, and you’re out here lollygagging while there’s a superhuman fight going down on the beach? This is not a stupid comic book! You could get killed!”

  “First of all we’re nowhere near th
at madness!” Kyle yelled back, “and secondly we came back to get Sir George!”

  “He’s a monkey!” She threw up her hands. “He knows how to run and climb a tree when there’s trouble!”

  “Dude,” Akram turned to Kyle, “she does have a point.”

  “Whose side are you on?” Kyle yelled at his best friend.

  “The side keeping me from the crazy lady who likes to burn people, and that axe wielding Skaar wannabe,” Akram fired back.

  “Technically, he’s pretending to be a dead Viking.” Kyle held up a finger.

  “We don’t care!” Akram and Kimberly both yelled at him.