"Sewers?" Rustopher protested. "I said good news because I saw a door up ahead. Sewer? I refuse."
"Okay..." Dan commented, "but don't come to any of us when the snakes find their way into these newer tunnels."
"On second thought, I assume you'll need my help eventually, and Talus can't carry himself!"
The sewers were better lit than the tunnels, and some sunlight filtered down through manholes. Dan's watch, obviously broken, said 99:99 AMMPM.
"Hey, wait a sec." Siris announced and jumped onto the small steel ladder suspended under a manhole. "I think I see something worth stopping for."
"What, did 'Venus' Secret' open a Fourside branch?" Chione cracked. "Get down from there, we're in a hurry."
"Ha ha." Siris said as he reached the top of the ladder. "These manholes are labeled with the street and the place they open to. This one's the department store."
Siris jumped down, leering at Chione. "Hey!" Dan said, changing the subject quickly. "I've gotta make a stop at the department store. Meet me somewhere around the outside of the building. Don't get killed without me!"
And with that he opened the cover, oblivious to Chartreuse, who was attempting to warn him about the zombies outside.
"Well, no use crying over spilt blood. Let's go, we've gotta see where some more of these manholes lead to." The others began to walk away, but right after Dan was out of earshot the light from the manholes suddenly disappeared, replaced by a strange purple glow. Darkness began to enter, through cracks in the walls and ceilings. The group began to duck in the middle portion of the sewer, but as fast as it came it disappeared.
Siris gulped. "Fourmoon...we must be too far down..."
Rustopher smirked. "That pest Dan isn't! I mean, oh darn, Dan isn't."
---
Dan was never a fan of dark malls filled with zombies, but he had come to the realization that he needed a weapon sometime before he was caught in a dark corner with someone (or something) wanting nothing more than to bite his head off. His Zapper was somewhere in Onett, a bit of a walk from a city under siege by zombies, so he had to head to the toy department. He was lucky, however, that he was slow getting through the basement, because as he entered the first floor, it was obvious Foormoon had returned. Besides walking through the sparse fires, it was relatively easy getting through the first floor. Until...
"Hey...what's he doing?" Dan turned to find a flame huddled behind the counter, talking to the ticket return window. "He isn't one of us, and he isn't one of them! He must be bad! Get him!"
Dan ran up the broken escalator as the flame berated its inanimate counterpart. "I told you to get him!" It shouted at the return window, which seemed to shrink away from it in shame.
On the second floor he saw portions of the toy department that had fallen through the fourth floor. A video games and electronics shelf lay in pieces along the middle of the floor. "The horror!" He shouted a bit too loudly...
"Hey, get him!" A concerned, zombified shopper shouted.
Dan looked through the rubble as fast as he could. "A Superscope! l33t...er...cool." He pressed the on switched, prayed the batteries worked, and laughed as the zombies started falling...
But there were too many. The escalator was blocked off, but there was a window... "This is gonna hurt." He ran backwards and jumped through the window...
The others emerged just as this was occurring. "Do you think he's okay?"
"Zombie scuuuuuuuuuum!" He continued firing as he fell, right up until he fell on a zombie the others had neglected.
Dan got up, brushed the crumbling zombie clothing off of the back of his shirt, and muttered something about broken glass.
He was met with strange stares. "Don't ask..." Quickly changing the subject, he handed Harsemhin a CD. "I found this; knock yourself out."
"Duran Duran, aweso--" Harsemhin quickly hid the CD from view.
The four puppets, however, cut the greetings short.
Matt's eyes widened. "We're surrounded."
"Let's run!" Chartreuse yelled.
And that yell was just in time; as the motley thirteen began to scatter into two groups of seven each, the four Puppets charged up their energy orbs.
"You evaded our attacks before," Monotoli murmured in a rather loud tone, "but this time, you will face our wrath. Haaaaaa!"
Monotoli fired off his energy orb, managing to miss hitting anyone by a country mile. However, he was able to hit a nearby building, causing it to collapse in on itself.
"You fool!" Lier X. Agerate screamed. "Next time, aim at them!" He fired off his own energy orb, aiming at Dan.
You know, there's something ironic about this I'm completely missing, Dan thought.
"Spiral Barrier!" Siris called out, separating his splinter group from the puppets with the baby-blue spiral shield.
"Impossible!" Carpainter brought his hand to his forehead. "Why are you two so incompetent? Aim at the other group!"
After a bit of running, Siris' group was able to make it out of Fourside. They collapsed outside the city limits, catching their breath outside the brick walls which surrounded the city.
Chartreuse quickly took a census.
"There's me, and Harsemhin, Dan, Rustopher, Siris, Chione and Talus. The others ... I hope they're doing all right."
While Chartreuse's group darted towards the city exit, dodging the Four Puppets' attacks, the other group fled in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, there was no city exit there.
"It's a dead end!" Matt yelled, looking frantically for an escape. Behind him, Paula was trying desperately to project psychic power, but with little success.
Penetella dropped Ness onto the cement and started attacking the brick wall. "Hurry!" Paula cried, glancing back at the other group, nearly out of sight. Before Penetella could get very far, a sphere of energy knocked him away from the wall, filling in the space where he had made a dent in.
"Going somewhere?" Everdred sneered, charging another energy orb.
"I guess this is it!" Jeff said hopelessly, giving up.
"Hey! Your hair is on fire!" Vincent shouted randomly at Everdred, throwing a match at him. It landed in his hair and the flames started spreading, causing him to scream in shock and the energy orb to dissipate. This small event bought them some time, but they didn't use it for anything. They had gotten nowhere by the time Carpainter had arrived on the scene.
The possessed menace took a swing with his paintbrush, propelling another orb straight at Ness. Before it reached him, Penetella dove in and pulled Ness away. The enemies roared in frustration, finding their attacks too easily evaded.
"Wait!" Jeff called to his group, running towards Ness' former position. The manhole cover had been knocked away by Carpainter's attack, revealing another entrance back into the sewers. "It's our only chance." He jumped in and was shortly followed by his friends.
Paula broke into a run, motioning for the others to follow. "We're not out of danger yet!" she yelled back. "The others are at the bridge! Let's go!"
-----
Risosha sneered.
"Don't think you're getting away THAT easily."
The villain concentrated deeply. Waves of invisible energy flew from his hands, finding their way into the sewers. Another minion would soon join Raltise's cause...
--------------------------------------------------
"I'm pretty sure it's this way!" pointed out Vincent, leading the way. Matt and Penetella followed closely behind. Both weary from running. they were taking turns carrying the still unconscious Ness. The rest trailed behind somewhat.
A strange sound echoed throughout the tunnels. It almost sounded like the rattling of bones. A second noise followed, this time a hiss of some sort. The group stopped in it's tracks.
Penetella scowled. "What's all that jibba-jabba?"
Matt noticed something dart by out of the corner of his eye. It flew through the shadows at a blinding speed.
"We're not alone..."
"Right you are..." hissed a faceless voice. The group turned frantically to find the source.
A frightening creature emerged from it's hiding place. In life, it looked as if it had been a rat, but now only bones remained. Mold crept all over it's body. Fiery orbs of crimson shone in it's eye sockets. It whipped it's brittle tail and prepared to pounce.
"Plague Rat of Doom..." murmured Paula. She remembered the monster well. She prepared to fell the beast with a PSI Freeze but was quickly reminded of her "disability".
Matt, Penetella and Vincent gritted their teeth. Unarmed, they knew the odds were against them.
The rat leapt at Matt, going straight for the throat. Managing to evade this surely fatal blow he got away with only a graze to his right shoulder. However, he cringed as he realized the claw was poisoned.
Penetella dove in with a furious punch to the vermin's skull. The beast shook off the attack and retorted with a sharp whip of it's tail. This knocked him backward into a wall. Battered, but still conscious.
Vincent managed to find a large piece of wood that would serve as a makeshift club. He lunged at the Plague Rat of Doom with all his might. But the weapon was heavy and the attack clumsy. Vincent hit nothing but air and rolled to the ground.
Bouncing back a few steps, their opponent sneered. "Is that all you've got?"
"This isn't working!" panicked Jeff. "We should run!"
Obviously in approval of this plan, the group pulled themselves together and ran off in the opposite direction. They would have to head back to the city...
A voice echoed through the rat's head. "Chase them for a minute then stop."
The rat cocked it's head, perplexed by this order. "But why, master? I could easily finish them now!"
"Just do it!" ordered Raltise. Forced to comply, the undead beast continued it's mock pursuit of the group.
--------------------------------------------------
Raltise laughed. He was herding them like sheep. With the aid of the rat, they would be lead back to him. And with them they carried his unconscious nemesis. It was all too simple...
--------------------------------------------------
Back in the tunnels, the group stopped to catch their breath. Penetella placed Ness down on the ground, exhausted, and the others slumped down in similar manner.
"I think we lost it." wheezed Vincent.
"Lost what?" asked an unknown person. Looking up, they saw it was Christina.
Matt looked up and greeted her. "Long story. Rats, Fourmoon; generally bad stuff all around. Hey, how'd you find us? This place is like a maze."
Christina shrugged. "I dunno. I suppose I just lucked out." She cringed at her remark. Story of her life...
Distracted by the arrival of Christina, nobody noticed that Ness' body had begun to twitch.
"Raltise...." he murmured inaudibly.
"Say..." Christina paused for a moment to contemplate what it was she wanted to say. She used this time to recall a name. "Ness is shaking on the ground. Is he alright?"
A nearly inaudible murmur escaped Ness' mouth. "Raltise..." His face regained its color.
Penetella checked Ness. "He seems to be comin' to. That's not a good thing, though. He may go psycho at what's back there. I pity da foo that gets tries to stop him from going back in there, too."
Ness' eyes opened slowly. Then he sat straight up. "Raltise, you-" He cut himself off short. In an almost supernatural show of strength, he broke his bonds and ran into the sewer.
"This is definitely not good." Vincent ran after Ness, and the others followed. Christina walked after the group knowing that it was better to stick together, especially in a situation like this.
They all traveled as fast as they can until they ran into the plague rat of doom once again. Ness was doing quite well against the rodent, dodging its attacks and SMAAASHing it with every attack. His rage was helping him here. Penetella, Matt, and Vincent jumped in, aiding the teen with their socks or their fists. Eventually, the rat retreated. When the rat retreated, Ness' rage simmered down.
"Ness, are you alright, sucka?" Penetella checked to see if Ness was alright. Ness didn't respond. He was breathing heavily. Everdred and Carpainter eventually showed up trying to accomplish their unfinished business.
"Get them!" A much too familiar voice was heard ordering the two around.
Everdred and Carpainter opened with their energy ball attack. Ness dove out of the way, along with the rest of the group. Christina went to a side wall and stayed there for the moment. "Guys, we should get outta here. This is definitely not good."
"Yeah, but how do we get outta here!?" Vincent yelled back at her, wanting to know what it was that she meant to do.
"Just follow me. I'm sure I can lead us out! I've got a feeling..." She started retracing her steps out of here, but before leaving the area, she stopped and turned right. "This way!"
The others figured that the only other option that they had was to fight. Everybody but Ness knew that fighting was futile. Paula had to bring Ness back to his senses. "Ness! Don't fight now! You'll be killed. If you're killed, we're all afraid that we'll never see you again!"
Apparently, Paula had gotten through to Ness. He ran back after the others avoiding the balls of energy that were being hurled at him.
Up ahead, Christina took another turn, and then another, and yet another. Finally, she found an exit from the sewers. "Guys! Here it is! Hurry!" She walked out at a brisk pace. She was satisfied that her wound allowed her to walk this fast already. Vincent, Matt, Penetella, and Ness followed. The ghosts of Jeff and Paula followed.
Even after they left, balls of energy were still being hurled after the group. They were careless of what they were hitting, causing significant damage to the sewer environment. A stray ball hurled by Everdred caused the exit to collapse, effectively sealing them in.
"You fools! Get them!" Raltise's voice had a quality of being able to cut the air when he wanted it to. Everdred and Carpainter continued to lob balls of energy at the blocked exit, leaving them trapped in worse than they were before.
Outside, the group was able to catch their breath.
"Well, it looks like you really did find us a way out. Is it your luck again?" Vincent looked at Christina as he asked this question.
"Yeah... I guess so..." She hid her face. All the attention made her feel uncomfortable.
"Either way," Matt began "we're all safe. Now where are we?" They all looked around. They saw that they were along a river of some sort. Over the hill, they could see Fourmoon. A tall barrier blocked the closest route into the city. They appeared to be quite a distance away from the bridge.
"The bridge is over that way. If we start traveling there now, we should be able to get there before it gets too dark." Jeff's suggestion seemed to be the best course of action that they could take at the moment. It was starting to get dark. However, it didn't feel like it was all that late. Nobody in the group had a timepiece, so they had no idea that it was still two in the afternoon, well before it even starts to get dark this time of year.
-----
Skulryk adjusted the seat in the truck, getting ready to drive. He checked the gas gauge; 1/2 tank. He'd need to gas it up once. "You may want to buckle your seatbelt." He told Lucky.
As he put the truck into first gear, he stalled it. He nervously chuckled as he turned the key again. "It's been a while since I've driven a standard."
Lucky just shook his head. He had grabbed Skulryk's camera as he had asked, but didn't know what Skulryk was going to do.
This time, Skulryk succeeded in getting it into first. He turned the car around at the end of the street, then headed back toward Summers.
As he put it into second, Lucky turned to him. "What are you gonna do? There are roadblocks there, man!" Skulryk didn't respond, and simply put it into third gear.
They were about 100 ft. away from the roadblocks when Skulryk put the truck into fourth. He was going about 40 mph and the policemen had begun to take notice. One officer held her hands up signaling them to stop, but Skulryk showed no signs of slowing.
"What is he doing?" one officer said. "Doesn't he see our beautiful roadblocks? That driver should get his eyes inspected!"
The officer trying to get the truck to stop dived out of the way just before the truck plowed through the roadblocks. Skulryk was grinning like a madman at this point, as he drove through the now-vacant strip of Route 40.
Lucky was blown away by this, and feared for his life, now very glad that he had taken Skulryk's advice and buckled his seatbelt. "What are you doing, man? You're going to get us all killed!"
Skulryk chewed on his tongue a little as he drove. "Please don't talk too much, I'm trying to drive! Hey, use my camera and get some footage of the hotel. This is gonna be the best I can get."
Lucky shook his head, but he did take out Skulryk's camera and got a quick shot of the remains of L'Hotel de Summers. The fire had been taken care of at this point, but all that was left of L'Hotel de Summers was a pile of ashes.
Skulryk approached the other end of the Summers Strip, and got to the other side of the roadblocks. Like before, he showed no sign of slowing down, and screamed out as he busted through this set of roadblocks.
"Woo hoo! Man, that's something that I'll remember! I'd do it again, but I guess we wanna get to Fourside, don't we..."
Lucky clenched the side of his seat with one hand, with the color draining from his face. He held Skulryk's camera in the other hand, however, and had complete footage of the first roadblock-bust. "You're crazy!" He screamed. "I know our driver took some risks when I was in the Runaway Five, but this is just insane!"
Skulryk mused at this comment. "Maybe so, who knows. But hey, we're getting to Fourside, aren't we?"
Back in Summers, the Onett Roadblock Squadron was in shambles. One officer spoke to another. "What was that? They just drove right through our roadblocks!"
Another officer stood in shock. "I don't know... It never occurred to anyone before to go through the roadblocks..."
A third officer was very flustered. "How could this happen! They've just ruined our record! And we were so close to getting a place in the book of World Records..."
Officer Strong was angry. "NOBODY messes up our record and gets away with it! After them!"
"Right..." the first officer said, hopping into a cruiser. Officer Strong got into his own car, and the two police cars started after the truck.
Skulryk put the truck into fifth gear as he cruised down Route 40 and was at 50 mph. Lucky was fearing for his life in the passenger seat. The sirens of the cops could be heard in the distance.
"Skulryk, we got some real problems! The police are coming after us!"
"That just means we have to go faster, then." Skulryk said calmly, as the truck began to push 80 mph.
"Hey, what are you doing? I don't know what this baby can handle!" The needle maxed out at 85, even though they continued to accelerate.
The police behind Skulryk struggled to keep up, but they were slowly gaining on him.
"Ok, we need to lose the cops." Skulryk said. He took an exit to Route 213, clenching his teeth as he felt the truck beginning to slip on the exit ramp.
"Careful on these ramps! I don't want this truck to flip over on us!" Lucky screamed, even though he was almost certain Skulryk would pay him no mind.
Skulryk continued on down to a rotary. Rush hour was starting, and traffic was beginning to back up. He grimaced. "I can't stand waiting..."
He didn't like the traffic jam, but he did see it as an opportunity to lose the cops. It'd be tough though.
The truck wove in and out of the breakdown lane before getting into the rotary. He was forced to take the truck up on the grass in order to miss hitting a red corvette, who's driver was stunned by seeing an airborne Chevy. The car landed in the rotary, and, for the most part, it was still intact.
"Remind me never to let you drive again!" Lucky said. Skulryk slowed to a normal speed and continued around the rotary twice before he took an exit and got onto I-95, a long highway that continued to Fourside. He was fairly confident that the police had not managed to follow him through the rotary.
-----
The police had lost the truck in the rotary. The rush hour traffic had been too much for them to get through and keep track of the truck, and they were stuck in the traffic back at the rotary. Chief Strong was livid. Not only had this punk ruined the record the Onett Roadblock Squadron was trying to set, he then showed up the Onett Police Force with his little rotary escapade. Officer Strong picked up his radio.
"All Officers, be on the lookout for a white Chevy pickup, license plate 601-SCI. Priority one!
-----
As the trio of drunks and the wolf approached, Bruiser went into a fighting stance and Kageru flipped through the cards in his deck and pulled out a specific one, all without looking.
"You sure you can handle that wolf?" asked Bruiser. Kageru nodded.
"I hope you're ready," said Bruiser, as Kageru took the device off his belt loop.
"You know I am." Kageru grinned menacingly. His device again began to glow as he passed the card through its slot. "Cado Surash! Kousuku Puragin B"**
"What are you doing?" asked Bruiser as Kageru began to glow.
He stopped glowing a moment later. "Making sure I can handle this." He reached to his side and his sheathe appeared, allowing him to draw his sword before vanishing.
Just what is this kid? wondered bruiser to himself as he readied himself. Kageru charged the wolf, running too fast to believe. "Garou shi-ne!"
The first of the drunks wasn't a problem for Bruiser. He ducked Pincho's punch - which was way off its mark, anyway - punched him in the stomach, and knocked him to the ground.
"Things weren't this easy since the local circuit!" exclaimed Bruiser as Pincho fell. His expression changed drastically as the next, who happened to be Pancho, pulled out a knife.
"You hit my brotha," came a barely comprehensible slur from Pancho.
Bruiser backed off. He could fight with the best of them in the ring, but you didn't find people with knives in the ring. "Why don't you put that away and we have a nice fair fight?" suggested Bruiser.
"You hit my brotha," repeated Pancho, taking a swipe at the ex-wrestler.
Bruiser's anxiety was growing exponentially. He wasn't ready for his opponent to be armed like that. He dodged Pancho who was trying to impale him, and leveled Thomas Jefferson. Just like the first time, Thomas Jefferson's head turned at a crazy angle and he didn't move when he hit the ground.
Bruiser realized his arms were glowing again and just stood staring at Jefferson's body. "How did I do that ... why did I do that?" he muttered to himself.
Meanwhile ...
Kageru was using his newfound speed advantage to keep the wolf at bay. He moved quickly and stabbed his sword at the wolf, but it was quick enough to snake out of the way.
On one attempt, the wolf got a grip on this broad sides of Kageru's sword with its teeth and knocked him off balance. Before Kageru could right himself, the wolf pounced, pinning him to the ground.
"Shima ..." muttered Kageru.
The wolf moved to bite Kageru, but before he could the boy was gone.
Kageru was now standing a few feet in front of the wolf, the device in his hand again.
"Amarini? Hisou..."*** He pulled a second card from his deck. "Cado Surash! Renamon!"
As the wolf pounced again, Kageru did a backflip, putting himself well above the ground where he hung for a moment. He crossed his arms in front of himself and dozens of small projectiles appeared in front of him.
"Koyousetsu!" he shouted as he brought his arms out to the sides, unleashing the projectiles. Every one hit the wolf and it went down for the count.
Kageru landed on the ground again and looked at Bruiser who had stopped dead in his tracks, staring at Thomas Jefferson. This would have been fine if Pancho wasn't sneaking up on him with the knife again.
"Baka! Abunai!"**** Bruiser was obviously outside of his service provider's support region, so he didn't respond. Kageru drew his sword again and flung it towards Pancho. The hilt hit him clear in the face and he went down, too. After it hit Pancho, the sword arced gracefully upward and then came down again. Kageru snagged it out of the air as it went by.
The threats eliminated, Kageru sheathed his sword and walked up to Bruiser. "Daijoubu ka?" he asked.
"Huh? What?" asked a dazed Bruiser.
"You okay?" Kageru corrected himself.
"I'm ... fine. I think I killed him..." stammered Bruiser.
"Good now he won't come back after us later." He started walking towards Fourside again. "You coming?"
Bruiser looked at Kageru for a second, then walked after him.
"But he's ... dead. How did I do that? How can you not care?" Bruiser was obviously in some stage of shock.
"How? Because I know sometimes you just have to do that." He didn't sound right for a ten year old, but Bruiser didn't notice as they got ever closer to the city.
**"Card Slash! High Speed Plug-In B"
***"Die, wolf!"
****"Too much? Pathetic."
*****"Idiot! Look out!"
-----
– Fourside Department Store: Roof –
As his enemies escaped from the Four Puppets and the Plague Rat, Virus finally awoke. Slowly, he arose to his feet and managed to assess his situation. He seemed to be fine, but... his enemies had escaped.
Through his crimson eyes, he scanned the city for his foes. Not finding them, he noticed the change slowly creeping throughout the town. The wave of neon and black hesitated for a moment, before it over took the Dept. Store building.
Virus smirked, and in his dual voice, hissed:
"Fourmoon..."
Silence took over the skyline for a brief moment, and then Virus smirked again.
"I'll be waiting for you, Protector." he whispered, keeping a vigilant eye on Fourmoon.