Chapter 6 - Purgatory

Trav’s aura flared across the battlefield in a raging display. The pure atrocious aura was black. Debris layered the entire studio remains. The whole confines inside of the vine prison expelled a venomous sensation. Xero effortlessly swatted the rubble with a simple swipe of his metallic hand, bursting the debris into even smaller pieces. Xero stood tall and firm, observing Trav’s unusual aura in the most random power up.

“A syringe… that syringe.” Xero observed, noticing the needle Willy had attempted to put away slyly, however, nothing much could escape Xero’s stare, much like that of a hawk upon a ground prey. “To think you would give that to a mere mortal. Although, I suppose there would be nothing much I could expect out of the morally corrupted Prince Sidian.”

Willy couldn’t let it go, the fact Xero referred to him as Sid, the man he had despised since time allowed him. Willy squinted, staring up at Trav with pristine curiosity. His aura had completely engulfed the area, but what’s more, was his ferocious, bloodthirsty grin. Trav’s body learned forward, his arms spread out wide open, a fanatical smirk expression, as even more apparent by his sudden gesture, a twitch. Trav’s eyes widened with ferocity.

“LET’S GOOO! I’LL SPREAD YOUR METALLIC GUTS THROUGH A TWO KILOMETER RADIIIUS!” Trav exclaimed, inhaling a large amount of air, his chest expanding along with this. Trav expelled a large, inhumane roar with a vicious tongue, a tongue that was no longer the reply of a human. The roar alone created a mass shockwave, expanding the area with a field of rubble, even putting a dent through the vine force field alone. Elementia even took note of its immense physical power. Her eyes looked up, a sudden expression lightened her eyes, fear, perhaps?

Could this be the psychological impact of his sudden power surge…? No, this is different, the aura is… dark. I would even venture to say evil. Xero thought. Xero narrowed his eyes and retaliated, holding up his right arm, two arcs opened through the center front and back on his arm, the cartridges expanded, attracting a mechanical set of twin guns, or as Xero calls them, Flash Blasters, which of itself expanded in an arc, creating two rows of nearly five blasters. The blasters charged up, the front side charging a set of red energy, the bottom a set of blue. As Xero prepared his attack, his right eye surged with an influx of new data. The data scurried through his eye in a flash, and in that one instant, Xero read it all, his eyes widened.

“That biomass… you are a spawn of The Kid. Not quite the same, but the genetics are unmistakeable. That syringe, was a syringe of his own powers.” Xero stated, practically to himself, but enough to carry its decibels to Willy, where he heard it all.

“Wait… what?! No… that’s not right! It can’t be! Your sensors are way too screwed-“

“So all along, it was a ploy with that boy. Whose biomass, I do not have data of. Very well, I must eradicate these K.I. monsters!” Xero charged his beams, but in that short instant, Trav vanished from even Xero’s sight. Xero contorted in a look of confusion and horror. He looked around, above, below, everywhere; his sensors couldn’t detect his presence.

“LOOK ABOVE BOYO! COMIN’ DOWN AT YOU… LIKE A HURRICANE! HAHAHA!” Trav exclaimed wildly, as Xero just noticed, Trav appeared above him, leaping down from below, using both cupped hands, smashing Xero’s metal face in. “OH SHIT! That’s hard as… metal! Right?!” Trav flipped on the ground, glaring up at Xero with a sinister resolve. Xero glared down at Trav, pointing his Flash Blasters his way. Trav’s eyes widened, a sudden smile crept on his face, as Xero prepared for fire.

“Trav… no! You can’t take that from point blank range… get out of there!” Willy exclaimed, almost desperately, yet helplessly, from where he stood. Being helpless bothered Willy, which was apparent. If it wasn’t his defeat that bothered him, it was just being able to do nothing while Trav’s marble bag was bursting with every passing second.

Trav laughed hysterically, Xero clearly not amused. Trav lunged for Xero in a chaotic swerve, clearly beyond reasoning now, grabbing Xero by both of his arms in a crossed approach. Upon fire, Trav forced Xero’s arms to position Elementia and Yuki’s way. “I’ll break you. I’LL PULVERIZE EVERY PARTICLE IN YOUR TIN HEAD!” Trav clenched his fists, bending his arms forward in front of his chest. In doing so, he dragged Xero towaerd him, head-butting him directly on his metallic forehead. Trav laughed hysterically, Xero glared menacingly. The dark aura around Trav began to concentrate, most noticeably around his face. The dark  aura began to take physical form, condensing pressurized air around his entire body. The debris began to shake and rumble underneath the stained canvas of dismay. Even Xero could feel this.

“Obviously, you are one of them,” Xero said. “That biomass. That aura, there’s no mistaking it. In that essence, I will destroy you as well. Since you now pose the greater threat, I only feel you should be the first to lose your life. Such a shameless act on a whim. You’re just like the rest of the K.I. scum.” Xero dragged his body back, lifting Trav up along the process. Xero’s arms glistened in a red blaze, as he forcefully overpowered Trav, freeing his arms with a simple yet powerful pull horizontally with his arms in opposition. Trav swung his arms, swinging madly in the air, before catching his fall only two meters from his opponent.

Trav flailed his arms aside, extending his arms outward in a ‘come get me’ stance. Trav expanded, letting loose a roar compacted with adrenaline, but more than that was the obvious intent to kill. Willy, though unable to express, was deeply disturbed by the transformation.

What is this? This can’t be a part of the phase for the CPES, I don’t remember experiencing this drastic of a change, especially so soon.

Trav lunged forward, hurling a punch with great force and velocity. Xero took the punch head on, even stumbling back from the impact. Xero appeared not physically injured, and his outward emotions expressed no sign of concern, but his artificial eye was surging with constantly incoming data.

Trav launched himself forward again, propelling himself, aiming for a swift spin-kick for Xero’s chest. Xero compressed his fists, as metal spikes protruded from the surface of Xero’s mechanical knuckles. Trav seemed to pay no mind, but Xero grabbed Trav’s leg. Trav aimed for another kick, as Xero threw Trav into the vine wall, charged with an impressive speed far beyond any human capabilities, punching Trav in the gut. Blood splattered across Xero’s face and the ground. Xero simply stared nonchalantly at Trav, who growled in Xero’s face.

Trav laughed maniacally, grabbing Xero by the shoulders, pulling him down to his head level and head-butting him into a sweet world of hurt. Trav’s head bleeded from the impact, as Xero flinched back; he leaped back, glaring at Trav.

“If you knew how to use your new power, you may have had a chance. But this is too early for you.”

“You will regret this, in the next world.”

Trav glared up, Xero’s arms began waving in the air in a spherical activity. In doing so, red glyphs were drawn in the air, before revealing the cryptic symbol of Pendulum in the air directly in front of Xero. Xero expelled his arm cannons forward with a commanding gesture.

Out of Xero’s arm compartments dispatched a large array of scarlet tinted metal chains, glowing with an ominous coat of plasma energy. Trav attempted to claw at the chains with an impeccable speed, generating a large burst of ginger sparks. Xero merely shrugged off Trav’s attempt. Even with his newfound power, he could put no dent in Xero’s ultimate offence.

“Wrong counter. The Chains of the Cybernetic Spectrum are completely invulnerable to any attack. And now, allow me to demonstrate the true Lost Arts of the forgotten Pendulum, lost in the fabrics of time.” Xero’s arm compartments closed, Xero traced his hands in the air around Trav’s general vicinity once more. A circle glyph with the same Pendulum seal appeared underneath Trav. Followed by another one that overlapped the original, an even bigger one, and so on, until there were 10 in all. The glyphs and their ancient text circled the ground in a slow clockwise turn around Trav, whom at this point was struggling with all of his might to free himself from the confining clasp of the plasma chains, which were of itself sinking into Trav’s skin. Trav’s dark aura expanded, he screamed, a high pitched scream that pierced the ears of all in the area who heard the intense decibels. Xero however, seemed unaffected in the least.

Willy closed his ears, glaring with discomfort at the scene unfolding right in front of his eyes. “Trav!!” Willy exclaimed, leaing on the vine wall within the inside of the rubble station for support. Xero’s casually turned to Willy, his head cocked to the side almost arrogantly, yet coolly. Willy glared at Xero, absolutely despising his look. Willy, above his hatred for losing virtually anything, hated to be looked down upon.

“I don’t know what it is you want, but I’m the one you’re after, right?!” Willy exclaimed, holding out his arms in an invitation. He knew what he was doing was reckless, but if Trav’s death was burdened on his conscious because of him indirectly, he could never see himself letting it go. His heart was already in a concentrated ache with the death of one of Trav’s close friends, whom was still oblivious to everything, and right now, didn’t care. He just met him yesterday, well actually 23 years ago. “Well then coward, come and face me. Obviously, I’m the bigger threat here.” Willy waved his arms, followed by a rather harsh cough, Willy barely getting the scratch out of his throat, spitting a small pool of blood on the debris.

Xero’s red cybernetic eye turned to Willy, the red eye dilated, surging with masses of information by the second. “To think the great leader of K.I. would sell himself out on such an emotional whim. Yes, heal up those fatal wounds, clear up that puddle of blood and apply a healthy dosage of lozenge, then I will kill you first. Otherwise, stay clear, Sidian Shamal.”

“Ancient Arts; Ten Seal Explosion,” Xero said, hardly above a whisper. He turned to Trav fully, finishing his finger tracings in the air, Xero struck an intense pose, and the glyphs began to glow with an concentrated flash. The energy began building up fast, as the pure force of the technique began to drive Willy himself into a corner. He looked on in shock.

“Damn you Xero! Stop this!”

Trav stopped struggling, his body now held by the tightened chains. Trav spilled no blood, as the pure heat energy from the plasma chains seeped into his skin and closed up the wounds as the wounds were made. Trav’s scream echoed throughout the city in a large frame. Xero reacted not to the insidious voice, that was slowly fading back into humanity. Trav’s humanity slowly began to seep back into his body. His mask began evaporating in the air in a mass black swirl of dark, twisted energy. Trav’s eyes rolled back in his head, his mouth wide open with saliva pouring out, his head leaned back, his body restricted by the conniving chains.

Willy saw the sight, his eyes widened in horror. He attempted to run toward the two, but his injuries proved that fatally impossible, he couldn’t do it. He tripped over a fragment of rubble in the destroyed vicinity. Willy fell on his knees, a sharp portion of glass pierced into his knee, causing Willy to groan in pain. His blood began to taint what he soon found was a body underneath him. Willy covered his mouth and looked away, resisting with his entire urge to vomit. His eyes gazed tirelessly at Xero, noticeable bags placed under his eyes.

“I can’t let you… do this! I will crush you all!”

With that last statement, Willy’s eyes widened, a blue tranquil energy appeared around his body. Within that same instant, he noticed the entire world around him was blue, and frozen. The world was frozen. He was the only one moving. He looked around, his eyes plastering everywhere, looking for anything, anything to break this wretched curse. He had no idea what was going on, and in his position, he didn’t feel like contemplating it too much.

“You want to save your friend’s life?” a voice all too familiar to Willy echoed in his head, echoed all around him, drilling into his ears through his brain. He clenched his fists, grasping the rubble, he suddenly sat up, throwing the piece of the burned rubble at 7 o’clock his first position. A shadowy figure walked past the rock, simply sidestepping it with ease. Willy glared at the red burrowing eyes of his visitor in the frozen planes of space/time.

“You have destroyed your friend’s life,” Sid said, staring down at Willy with the impeccable glare of a madman who had lost his happiness a long time ago, who lived with resentment everyday for who he was, a look Willy was all too familiar with. Sid cocked his head back, chuckling slightly.

“What’s so funny?” Willy asked, attempting to get back on his feet. Sid simply stared down at him with an unfortunate yet amused pity. “What the hell are you laughing at?!”

“You’re losing, Willman. You have lost this battle. You are a loser.”

“Shut the hell up,” Willy said, glaring at Sid, a vein popping in his head, his eyes bulged with an anger incomprehensible to even him right now. Sid knew Willy all too well, he knew how to drive him into a corner, even Willy knew that. Sid always won, he hated him for it. He was better, he couldn’t accept such a weakness, especially to another man. “Where the hell are we, anyway?”

Sid looked back down at Willy with a nonchalant smirk. “This is my world. The frozen vacuum of space/time I am able to freely manipulate to my liking; The Frozen Terrestrial. I can even drag others into its vicinity.”

Willy crouched on one knee, bending the other, he placed his hand on his right knee, the other on the ground. “Because of you… this is happening to me. This is all because of you. You son of a bitch…” Willy said, trembling with many mixtures of emotions. “Why the hell are you doing this to me?!”

Sid stared at Willy, as if it were a trick question. “Because you are the most familiar with the games I like to play. In fact, I would venture to say you’re the only one I can play my games with.”

Sid laughed. “I need you Willy.”

“And you need me.”

“RAAGH!” Willy charged forward, throwing a punch at Sid head on, using every ounce of willpower he had left to muster. Sid simply gripped Willy’s arm with his forearm, then elbowed Willy in the face. Willy fell back, before Sid side-kicked him across the chest, sending Willy crashing into the vine wall, which didn’t flinch an inch at Willy’s impact. Willy began panting, glaring up at Sid. Even now, he was finding it hard to breathe. Xero’s damage on top of Sid’s was adding up fast, even multiplying. Willy would not give up though.

Sid pulled out something from his pocket. “Don’t be so hasty. I have a gift for you. I understand you’ve been looking for this?” Sid pulled out a syringe, the same style as the one Willy used, however, the crest was different. It was the traditional crest of the Edward Reid laboratory foundation on the center. Willy’s eyes widened slightly.

“Syringe? There was another one created after us?” Willy asked. Sid pointed down at the syringe Willy used for Trav lying on the floor. Willy looked, picked it up, and examined it. His eyes widened in complete horror and guilt when he seen the crest on that one.

“You… you didn’t…. You…” Willy was speechless, now trembling with even fear. He gritted his teeth. “You… bastard… you switched them?! You mean I gave Trav…”

“He was the one destined to use it, after all. Sooner or later, I would have done the same. Or, even they would have acted before me. It was his destiny to become us, and it is your destiny to watch in anguish, as everything you know and love will fade into an abyssal fissure.” Sid held up his hand, grabbing Willy by the face. Willy grabbed at Sid’s hand, but was easily overpowered. Sid raised his knee, kneeing Willy in the face. Willy fell down, his nose and mouth spilling blood. His eyes wandered lifelessly around the imprison, but the one guy he couldn’t seem to shake out of his mind, was Sid.

“I’ll keep in touch Willy.” Sid said, his voice faded. Willy never seen him leave, he was just gone. He didn’t even notice himself flip back into reality, the colors began fading back to normal, time’s flow continued.

Willy gritted his teeth, and was now crawling toward Xero, his effort and drive unmatched by anyone else. Xero simply shrugged him off, finding it odd that he was even passionate about this. He tainted a trail of blood along his way. Willy’s eyes began to flash, his vision finally completely blurred, his hearing began to distort and wander. He was fading out of consciousness. For once, he was totally helpless, he could do nothing but watch before he drifted off into a realm of slumber.

“Well, it’s about time,” Elementia said, folding her arms, standing above Willy’s unconscious body. Her Pendulum cape blew sideways along the patterns of the wind. “With that cyborg chick down, there’s no one who stands in the way of Sire Xero now. Please, Xero, finish this.”

“Yes,” As Xero intended to finish the Ten Seal technique, a Xero’s chains were suddenly slashed open with a sword, even the seemingly unbreakable Cybernetic Spectrum chains. Xero glared to his east at 3 o’clock. Within that same instant, Xero’s eyes shot a beam of concentrated plasma energy at the designated position without a moment’s delay.

As the smoke cleared, the end hilt of a golden crested sword, a double edged golden crested sword, with two parallel blades attached to the hilt. Xero’s face was caved in by the sudden attack. The sword flipped stylishly in the air, a gloved hand catching it, stabbing it into the ground, placing his feet next to each other squatting over the sword. His samurai armor coat with an illuminating golden trim appeared in the light. Elementia in general’s eyes widened at the sight of this newcomer.

“The Vault’s Golden Eagle of the Rose,” Elementia said, swallowing profoundly, yet she remained outwardly uninitiated, merely surprised. “What brings you here?”

The man’s sapphire eyes looked over to Elementia, his face remained nonchalant. He slowly smiled, “Elementia, the Elemental Eclipse. What a very… graceful appearance. You’ve changed, inside and out.” The Golden Eagle said, his eyes lit with a warmth of a sun, yet narrowed boredly and lifelessly, as if he was not interested in any of his surroundings. “But really, there’s no need to be so formal. I do go by the name of Sabre these days, my lady.”

Elementia walked toward Xero, whom attempted to help him on his feet, yet Xero profoundly refused her hand. He stood up, brushing himself off casually. “To put a dent in me, you are something. Yet…” Xero said. “My scanners detect nothing on its data banks. You are a complete mystery to me.”

Something about Xero’s statement made Elementia uneasy. Her face flustered, she bit her lip, yet tried to hide her outward emotions, something she naturally was good at. “Sabre, you do realize by apposing Pendulum, you oppose us? By opposing us, you oppose the world?”

“I think K.I. already beat you to the punch,” Sabre said, flipping off of his sword, landing with a stylish manner, placing his hands inside of his arm sleeves. “You are wasting your time here. You should leave. You have already made a very ungraceful mess.”

“The core of K.I. lies in front of you, and you are willing to let him walk?” Xero declared nonchalantly, his eyes burrowing into Sabre’s, who remained unaffected, swatting a fly at his shoulder as Xero talked. “More importantly, you dare turn your back on us?” Elementia merely watched from afar.

Sabre walked toward Trav, picking him up on his shoulders. He walked toward Willy, performing the same task on his opposite shoulder. Sabre looked down, his eyes wandered toward the News Station. Sabre’s attention turned to the android sister of Yuki, his eyes widened slightly, for the first time since his arrival, he showed a genuine care for his surroundings. He trembled slowly, turning his gaze slowly back to Xero.

“You sadistic bastard,” Sabre said, a vein popped in his head, as he glared at the male android of the cybernetic duo. Xero’s eyes broadened slightly, his face remaining nonchalant. Sabre walked toward Yuki, now weighing her across his shoulders with the boys. Sabre’s head remained low upon the encounter. He turned his back toward the Pendulum duo.

“You’ve fallen so low, Tetsu Kagame. I will make you burn.”

Xero’s eyes widened, he faltered back slightly. Elementia closed her eyes and shook her head. Sabre leaped out of the hole made in the vine prison.

“Yuki… my graceful love, what has he done to you? I never knew…” Sabre said, closing his eye, a tear washed down his face as he leaped toward the rooftop, away from the ever scarred battle of the US News Station of Heretic City. What he carried on his backs though; was the portal to a whole new awakening to a new world.

A world free from the indulge of purgatory.