No you don't. Besides, I lied. :3
NOW FOR MOAR STOREH!!! (BTW, it's about 6 pages)
Chapter 7: A Secret Alliance
The last of the people from the jet crash were being carried in. Civilians were obviously hit the hardest, what with their much higher mortality rate, but Brawlers were damaged fairly well too (though nowhere near as excessive).
Rageblood was the last to be brought into the underground shelter. The man that drove his truck to the crash site held Rageblood in his arms as they traveled down an elevator shaft. All that shone on them in this grey, moving room was a single dirty light, which swung freely above them.
Rageblood shook himself out of the man’s hold.
“I’m telling you, McJesus, I’m fine.”
Sensing his discomfort, McJesus carefully slid Rageblood down so he could stand. Rageblood stood well, though he was hunched over and clinging to his side and blood seeped out of the corner of his swollen lips.
“You sure?” McJesus said to the obviously crippled Rageblood. “I really don’t mind.”
“Hey, if I can stand, I’m going to,” Rageblood retorted proudly.
“Whatever you say, then...”
McJesus’s and Rageblood’s elevator finally clunked to the bottom of the shaft, where the shelter laid. It was mostly just one huge room. It lacked any flooring besides the dirt on the ground, had concrete walls that reached up high, some doors in the back that lead to various rooms, and a hallway near the elevator shaft that lead to a smaller circular room of the same material as the large one.
In the room, there were a large number of cots organized in a square formation. Mostly civilians actually laid down on the cots. Battered Brawlers sat and licked their wounds. Spawner was crouched over a certain civilian’s make-shift bed. Once the elevator’s car sounded that it finished its decent, McJesus and Rageblood stepped out of the car. McJesus pressed a button on the nearby wall and the elevator car raised back up the way it came. He then advanced with Rageblood, who started to limp.
The two passed Ray, who lay motionless and neatly on his cot, staring at the ceiling. His body, his face, his eyes... everything that was normally cheerful and optimistic had become a sign of morbid depression. A giant gash was present across his forehead and his shirt was drastically torn at the stomach, which revealed a massive blue, black, and red bruising. Obviously, the wounds didn’t concern Ray in the slightest. At his feet, the bruised Beachroller slept, occasionally expelling some sob-like snores, water leaking from the crease where his closed eyelids met.
McJesus walked with Rageblood until they reached an empty cot. He stood there as Rageblood cautiously and painfully sat down to rub his aching sores. His arm extended out to offer a roll of gauze to Rageblood. Rageblood gratefully accepted the offer, and painfully wrapped up a wound that he got from having his seatbelt on the plane cut into his side.
“You sure you don’t need my help with anything?” McJesus asked. “You look pretty banged up, there.”
“No thanks...” Rageblood grunted out. “But if I do, I’ll let you know.”
“Alright, then. Well, if you do, I’m gonna be in that room,” -McJesus pointed to a room behind him with his thumb- “taking care of everyone.”
Rageblood didn’t look curious, but his voice’s tone expressed his thoughts.
“Taking care of them? Why? What happened?”
McJesus started to rub the back of his head.
“There was a bit of a Blob attack a while back. We’re fine, but everyone got hit pretty hard.”
Rageblood eyed McJesus head-to-foot.
“Huh... well you look fine.”
“Yeah,” McJesus said simply. “Well, I’m going in there. If you need me, knock.”
Rageblood gave a thumbs up to approve. McJesus gave a smile of acknowledgment and cracked a door open to walk into the room he gestured at earlier. Rageblood watched McJesus until the door closed behind him. He then diverted his attention to the rest of the room.
The room looked dirty, and definitely resembled some place underground. As stated before, the floor was dirt and the walls were concrete. These concrete walls were cracked and smudged with grime in random places all over. Frankly, by the looks of it, it was a miracle that the place was still standing. What concerned Rageblood the most were the people on cots and the various sounds they made. Damaged civilians created an orchestra of painful and remorseful whines and moans. Rageblood took notice that some of the occupied cots of some of the lonelier civilians had been pulled together.
The surviving Brawlers were hardly expressing any real signs of pain as far as the civilians did. Ray still laid still in silence, staring at the ceiling, something obviously on his mind. Beachroller’s sub-conscience sobs could barely be heard over the other complaints. Spawner sat on an empty cot near a civilian (it’s probably a safe guess as to which one). Rageblood noticed that the kind-hearted Spike was walking from cot to cot, ignoring his own scars, to see how everyone was doing. After conversing with a number of civilians, Spike came to visit Rageblood.
“Hey, how ya doin’ there?” he asked.
Rageblood wobbled around his waist to test his joints, giving out an audible grunt as he did so.
“I’m... I’m pretty good. Waist hurts a bit, but it’s nothing major.”
“Good,” Spike replied. “Hey, I noticed that McJesus was the only one here when he brought us in. I figured there’d be more people.”
“Well, he told me there was a Blob attack here earlier and everyone was recovering in those rooms at the back.”
Spike looked to the door McJesus entered.
“I’m gonna check out one of these rooms real fast, see if I can help out.”
“Here, I’ll come with,” Rageblood said. But as he started to stand, Spike urged him to sit back down.
“Man, I don’t care what you tell anyone, you gotta rest. Now you lay down there, and I’ll be back.”
Rageblood seemed rather annoyed.
“Fine. Whatever.” With that, Rageblood spun around and flattened his back on the cot. As he did so, Spike had turned around to head to a door. Rageblood listened to him creak the farthest-right door open. He could help shooting up when Spike slammed it shut.
“We have to go right now!” Spike yelled as he passed Rageblood. The whole room had Spike’s attention as he was urging the civilians to stand up. Even Ray had taken the effort to turn his tired-looking face to see Spike.
Rageblood was quick to his feet.
“What’s going on, Spike?”
Wham! The door Spike had just slammed shut splintered into a wooden mess of shards. From the room came a Pulper, its grinding roar letting all know that it was here.
“That’s what’s going on!” Spike told Rageblood.
Rageblood tore the rifle off his back.
“Damnit, we can never get a freaking break, can we?!”
Rageblood was about to pull on his gun’s trigger when a green-shirted Brawler decided to latch on to the Pulper. Spike and Rageblood, though too afraid to approach, were shocked at Ray’s plan of action. He had clutched onto the Pulper’s neck to beat its head with the Sunbolt. He yelled at it between punches.
“You just... had to... ruin... every.... fucking... thing.... DIDN’T YOU?!?!”
The Pulper gained a hold of Ray to hold him up in front of its field of view. Just as Ray was suspended by his chest, he launched an arrow -which was much larger than the normal breed- into the monster’s right pec, dissolving away the structure of its shoulder and forcing the Pulper to let Ray hit the ground. Ray rolled to his back and was nearly ready with another shot, but the one-armed Pulper launched him in the air with a knee like a rubber ball. As he floated in the air, the Pulper used its remaining arm to plow a fist into Ray and let him crash into the concrete wall, adding to the craters and cracks that the old wall already had.
It was at this point McJesus decided to bust out of the door to the room he had been residing in earlier. An angered look swivelled around to the Pulper and he raised a hand bearing a small fireball.
“McJesus!” Rageblood shouted. “We could use your help now!”
The Pulper eyed McJesus as it regenerated itself. For a being that always seemed angry and powerful, the Pulper seemed rather calm as it looked to McJesus. Horror-stricken Brawlers and civilians that had been watching the whole fight were now extremely curious. McJesus’s readying fireball puffed out of existence, and McJesus held out a flat palm to the Pulper, as in the hand gesture that told someone to stop whatever they were doing.
“McJesus...” Spike moaned.
“What’s going on?” a tense Rageblood asked.
In a response, McJesus relaxed his posture to let his arms slink to his sides. He hung his head. Behind him, through the same door that he had just busted through, four Bodyguards marched out into the public eye. People’s expressions were a mix of horror and wonder.
McJesus lifted his sad head and brought a headset microphone to his ear. He latched it on to his earlobe and held onto a button. Clearly, it was McJesus who spoke, but it wasn’t his voice that was echoed through the microphone. It was Angelface’s.
“Is anyone out there?” said McJesus in his demonstration. “Is anyone there? If anyone’s there, listen! Some Brawlers have set up a shelter at the Cavern’s edge! Make it if you can! We’ll be watching for you!”
McJesus looked around to the many faces that had mouths hanging open. He put the microphone back in his pocket, and finally spoke in his actual voice.
“Convincing right?” No one would answer. They all looked on either with horrified faces, or faces of pure hate (Ray in particular).
“I’m sorry, guys,” McJesus told them. “But... but Balto was right on this one.”
Rageblood, Spike, and Beachroller turned to run. Except it was just as the elevator shaft was skidding down the shaft. The car’s doors opened to reveal a familiar figure accompanied by four more Bodyguards.
“Where are you guys off to in such a hurry?” Balto-Boy smirked.
Two Bodyguards leaped on top of Spike and Rageblood to pin them to the ground with their spear-like projectiles. One tried to stab at Beachroller, but the spears were unable to pierce his scaley armor. Letting the projectiles bounce off of him, Beachroller ran up the leg of a Bodyguard that didn’t attack Spike or Rageblood. He managed to leap off of the top of the Bodyguard’s head and bounce up and down like a basketball. He bounced off the head of one Bodyguard to the other, forcing each one to the floor. Beachroller leaped up and was about to bounce on them again, but Balto-Boy snatched him out of midair. Before Beachroller could squirm away, Balto-Boy threw him into a small metal cage that he held in one hand by a handle. Balto-Boy locked the cage door shut, and threw the cage into a small corner with Beachroller inside. Three Brawlers brushed aside, Balto-Boy made his entrance into a room filled with terrified screams.
Balto-Boy was nearly knocked back by an attack that brushed near his face. As it passed, he could feel fur singing away from his skin. Balto-Boy clutched his face with his un-gloved hand and had a shocked look directed at his attacker. Ray stood there, his Sunbolt archery bow smoking.
Balto-Boy had an odd complexion about his face. While clutching his lukewarm cheek, he had a squinted stare to Ray, as if he were wondering what the heck he was doing. Balto-Boy’s eyes darted around the room, peering from terrified civilians, to a calm McJesus, to the pinned Brawlers behind him, and to the Pulper that stood in the corner this whole time. The Pulper was about to charge Ray, but there was a sudden shift in Balto-Boy’s face before it could do so. Obviously, Balto-Boy grew angry... but there was a moment of something else right before the anger.
“Leave him!” Balto-Boy shouted as he leaped over cots. “This guy’s mine!”
Ray created more heat arrows to fire, but Balto-Boy brought a glowing glove to break through. Balto-Boy swung his glove, surrounded in his green auras, all around his body to deflect any arrows that headed his way. Ray stood in one place to fire his shots, his face growing more and more irritated with each miss. All the while, Balto-Boy closed up the distance between him and Ray.
One shot, Ray couldn’t get off in time. Just as he brought the arrow back, Balto-Boy knocked away the Sunbolt, firing the arrow into the ceiling. Balto-Boy brought a knee to knock the wind out of Ray and brought him to his knees. After that, Ray found himself pressed to the wall, pinned by a stick into his neck and a glove covering his face. But Ray managed to get a leg up, and kick away Balto-Boy. Balto-Boy now stood about six feet away from Ray, who used the distraction to grab his Sunbolt.
Ray turned to Spawner, who was standing at Cindy’s cot.
“Spawner! Do something!”
Spawner looked like he was about to puke, except without the proper coloring. Ray was glaring over to him expectantly. As did Balto-Boy. Spawner took one quick glance at Cindy, who laid on the cot with a swollen body, looking back up to him. Coldly, Spawner looked back to Ray and Balto-Boy and raised up a sparking hand. From above Ray, a giant cage spawned to trap the archer in his tracks.
“Spawner!” Ray shouted with his hands clutching the bars. “Spawner! What are you doing?!”
Spawner wouldn’t reply as he lowered his hand. His head hanging in shame, he turned back to Cindy. Now she looked as if she hated him just as much as they all already hated Balto-Boy. She tried spitting at him, but her busted face forced the shot to land short. His head still hanging, Spawner turned to face to face Balto-Boy yet again.
From behind the cage’s bars, Ray readied another Sunbolt arrow, but was brought down and shouted a yelp when a needle-sharp aura shot pierced into his shoulder. Balto-Boy took his gloved hand and reached into the cage to squeeze on to Ray's arm as hard as he could. Ray cringed and yelled while what sounded like cracking could be heard from under Ray's flesh. Finally, he dropped the Sunbolt outside of the cage, and Balto-Boy brushed it away and out of Ray's reach; and he did it quickly so that the weapon's touch wouldn't burn his hand.
“Congrats, fellas!” Balto-Boy greeted to McJesus and Spawner. “Our plan worked out with flying colors!”
McJesus sighed a reluctant “thanks”. The shameful Spawner refused to look up.
“Hey, Spawner!” Balto-Boy called.
Only now, though slowly, did Spawner lift his head. He looked up in time to catch a tangled mess of shackles that Balto-Boy threw at him. A typical set of shackles had the chain joining a pair of metal cuffs together. These shackles still had the same chain, but the cuffs were replaced with giant spheres that would latch to and cover up entire hands. Some of the shackles were modeled so that they would cover entire feet the same way, shaped as a pair of huge steel boots. Spawner’s cold face still remained. He looked to Balto-Boy with the shackles still in hand. His glance caught Balto-Boy holding up his own collection of shackles.
“You help me chain up everyone,” he told Spawner. Balto-Boy then directed his speech to McJesus. “McJ, you go ahead and get the rest of them out there. I’ve got a bunch of prison cars waiting on us upstairs.”
McJesus nodded solemnly and turned to the row of doors behind him. He walked into the first door, and started collecting people that were inside. Balto-Boy paced over to the Brawlers that the Bodyguards had pinned to the floor, also taking away Rageblood’s rifle.
Spawner walked up to the cage that held Ray. Ray had returned to his emotionless state, and was sulking in the small cage’s corner. Spawner created a key out of nothing, and opened the lock to enter the cage. Ray looked up to Spawner as he entered with a hateful, yet calm stare; his eyebrows seeped a tiny bit over his eyes, and his mouth was a bitter-looking frown. Ray looked up only for a moment, but then dropped his head back to look to the ground. He put up no resistance as Spawner took Ray’s hands and chained them together. And did the same for his feet. Spawner gently lifted up Ray to his feet. Again, Ray put up no resistance. Spawner couldn’t help but look back as he pulled Ray to his doom. He saw how Ray’s face wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t look at anyone, wouldn’t really look at anything. Ray stared off into space, no real purpose behind his stare. It gave Spawner a sense of hopelessness, possibly broadcasted unknowingly by Ray’s mind. Spawner attempted to give a bit of a comforting smile, but Ray refused to take the bait.
As Spawner exited the cage with Ray, he noticed that McJesus was shoving chained prisoners in front of him. Some were civilians, but there were some that Spawner recognized as Brawlers: Tom Mitch, Virus, Psibat, and Bulet. McJesus let them stand at the corner of the much larger room. From the second door, McJesus pulled out more Brawlers: Ruby, Zarth (stripped of his armor), Sigmund, and Angelface. McJesus pulled more civilians out of the third room (from where the Pulper emerged), but he also brought Abigor and Inu with him. Spawner cautiously let go of Ray’s shackles and allowed him to stand along with all of McJesus’s prisoners. Ray looked back to Spawner momentarily with that dreadful looked that destroyed any good feelings Spawner had.
Over at the other end of the room, Balto-Boy was gathering civilians into a single corner near the elevator shaft. He did so with a professional attitude: calmly chaining up people and dragging them into a cluster-fuck as if it were an everyday hobby. And, knowing Balto-Boy’s current position, it just might have been.
“Whew!” Balto-Boy sarcastically remarked when he gathered the last of the civilians to his pile. “We’re definitely gonna have to take more than one trip...” he looked to Spawner and McJesus. “Good thing we have a bunch of cars outside, right fellas?!”
The two looked to him, but didn’t respond.
“Erm, right!” Balto-Boy said nervously. “So, um... let’s get these guys to Illidon!”