WARSMAN - Part Five: Mirrors

Avatar image for warsman
Warsman

5426

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#1  Edited By Warsman

One punch turned into another. Back and forth. Thunder and lightning. Shaking the world as it crumbled from within. Lightning Lancer - Isaac Manhardt - and Warsman - Warren Manhardt - to the death. The plasmoid biological structure of his older brother notwithstanding, Warren held the physical advantage by a considerable degree. Yet, Isaac could ionize the oxygen in his blood and lungs. This was his strongest attribute against his younger brother, whose fists tore him apart even as they barely even glanced his pseudo-liquidus flesh.

"See how they fight?" Cthulhu murmured from within Rama Khan's mind. "They are just as weak as the humans,"

"Morally, Isaac is deplorable. He uses his powers for personal gain just like a child. Warren is blinded by hope and concern for those around him,"

"Then that is why you have no faith in him?"

"I have faith in very few things. My ability to contain you is one of them,"

Another thunderous blow, and Isaac's teeth start falling out. His brain shakes inside his skull, bouncing around with reckless abandon. He regenerates in short order, but the damage is already done. He's beginning to slur his words. His pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears. His voice left Warren's mind long ago. Isaac was no longer a brother to him, but someone else who wanted him dead. Who wanted his whole family dead. He raised his fist one last time.

There was a brief second where Isaac's face reminded him of who he once was.

Of who he could have been.

And then, nothing.

He raised his bloodied fist out of the ground. It always boiled down to nothing.

Panting, Isaac looked up at his brother, the same brother who showed him one final act of mercy by impacting the ground next to his head.

"Why aren't you regenerating like you normally do?"

They were back on the schoolground, recess. Isaac always defended Warren from the bullies. Their scientist fathers never allowed them to use their powers, but Isaac snuck in many usages during his youth. Rocks just passed right through him, melted down into harmless puffs of ash. He started retaliating in full during high school, once Warren came out of the closet. The bullies who now tormented them because of their powers found a new thing to make fun of, and Isaac had a chance to finally be free of the bigotry and hatred.

He became a part of it.

"Answer me,"

Isaac didn't have anything to say. Years of guilt built up in his esophagus as he choked, and finally shed a tear after all those years of purposefully holding back.

"I can't hear you Warsy," he replied earnestly.

Their last battle in the atmosphere must have drained him exponentially, or else he would have tried to do something by now. Warren put a thumb on his brother's cheek and wiped away the trail left behind in the dirt by the droplet of bitter water. He would have also regenerated his eardrums by now, which were popped by the impact next to his face.

Instead, they were bleeding. Isaac never bled. His pride would never permit it.

"Watch this now, Rama," Cthulhu chortled. "This is beautiful,"

"I hardly find any beauty in the suffering of others," the reincarnation of Krishna spat back.

"Then you do not know true bliss,"

Isaac put his hand on Warren's neck. He tried to pull back, but Isaac's hand started shaking. Both of them did, yet he managed to force himself into a sitting position. One last major ploy by the Lightning Lancer, and it hit harder than any of his previous ones. Warren hugged his brother back, finding the love that was buried under the years of abuse and malevolence.

"I'm sorry."

---

"How disappointing,"

The Chinese-made god shuffled despite Rama Khan's psionic hold on the creature. Temporal transfer only lacked a few minutes, a passage into a distant time portal in which Rama Khan planned to send the fragment of the apocalypse. The Indian god shuddered under the weight of a sudden telepathic tug-of-war, finding his own side hopelessly overpowered.

"I was expecting a bloodbath,"

Rama could not reply. Forced away into the dark corners of Cthulhu's mind, the heir of Vishnu ceded control over Cthulhu by no choice of his own. The newest god must have allowed himself to appear weaker than Rama Khan in the department where he had continuously adapted to be the strongest. Yet even the greatest can find those who are still yet greater.

Warren gently let his brother's body down to the ground. The crumpled landscape where Moscow used to stand, its landmarks ruined, its rivers dried, and its people driven to genocide, made a suitable battlefield for what seemed to be the final encounter. God versus god, new and old, destruction and hope.

And yet, he knew he could never win, especially with what Cthulhu had already accomplished.

"Your friend Rama Khan was certainly an entertaining individual," the abomination began. "Yet, he could never manage to predict something as wild as mindless destruction for destruction's sake. He also could not predict what would happen if he merged minds with me. He expected to control me, somewhat. At least long enough for him to send every last one of my molecules into another section of time and space, one without anyone to kill I would assume,"

The ground began to tremble.

"The seeds are already planted,"

All around the world, major population centers not already under siege were being consumed by the earth, craters and chasms leading down to the "children" of Cthulhu. What these squirming crimes against nature looked like, Warren could not tell - and he doubted he would ever want to.

"This world is insignificant, a single sacrifice to my masters," the artificial Great Old One continued to voice his dominance, truly believing his place on this earth as one of unlimited destruction.

"Submit to darkneAAAUUUUGH!"

The ground stopped its incessant roaring, and for a brief moment the suffering were able to recover. Warren caught a glimmer of light from a distant mound of wreckage, and from it sprang the weak and battered body of Rama Khan - but one he could control indefinitely nonetheless!

"You made two fatal errors, Cthulhu," he shouted mockingly. "You created more than one mind for me to attack, therefore spreading yourself too thin,"

To demonstrate this, Rama Khan started popping the brains of the abomination's "children" one by one, each time afflicting the host body with pain terrible enough for him to fall completely silent save for the world-shaking screams.

"And you underestimated me! Warren, finish him off!"

His psionic grip was weakening. Warren had a second or two to react before Rama dipped into reserve power, a desperate measure which would kill him eventually. Before he could even move, a familiar voice filled his ears. Except, it was a voice he never wanted to hear in this tone.

"Marcus?"

His husband.

And he was howling in agony, one of his cybernetic arms being twisted off at the root of the shoulder. Warren ignored it as the torturer cast the limb aside, leaving it to crumple at the Earthling's feet, which did not budge at first. Instead, his heart boiled over with an indescribable anger as he looked upon Marcus' tormentor.

"Warsman," his harsh words cascaded over Warren's eardrums, doing nothing more than agitate his already potent killer's instinct.

"Ultherian!" Warren shouted, not even close to being merciful at this point. So much happened in the past few days that it all seemed like the Longest Day, one that would never end, or show any signs of ending. It all spilled out right now. Emotion lending itself to Warren's mountain-shattering strength, he dared to raise a hand to the fallen paladin of Ragnarok.

"Heel,"

---

It started with the Western Seaboard. From there, Ultherian bombarded the United States mainland from end to end, relentlessly. Laying siege to an entire continent in less than an hour, disrupting any and all activity, replacing it with desolace and devastation. Marcus cradled his daughters as close as he could with his only arm.

"Plot a course for Moscow," the fallen paladin commanded.

Then, he turned towards the three prisoners he kept especially for Warren.

"These children would make one of my lieutenants very happy. She is always eager for new recruits to her brigade of female warriors,"

Silence, just as Ultherian expected.

"Of course, that will all depend on how much we can repress of what has happened to them so far. No sense in allowing them the pleasure of remembering you and your husband, for instance. Now your deaths, however, can prove to be an interesting exploration into their psyches. Especially if they were forced to watch it over. And over. And over again,"

Marcus finally answered: "Shut up,"

Ultherian seemed mildly entertained by this statement.

"I have no intention of stopping now, half-man. This planet still has roughly two billion human lives left on it. Not even the microbes will be left when I leave this time,"

Percy and Rose recognized Ultherian from the stories Warren would tell. But nothing could prepare them for the real thing. He caught a fleeting glance of them looking at him, and an idea sprung to his devious mind. With a gesture, a pair of metademons rushed into the prison and pried the children away from Marcus while a third one tazed him relentlessly.

Their cries of agony for each other struck a special note in the fallen paladin's heart.

A note that would seem nostalgic very soon.

Avatar image for _drake
_Drake

14900

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#2  Edited By _Drake

I love you... Uh, I meant your story.

^_^

(And you too!)

WAR MACHINE o/

Avatar image for shadowswordmaster
ShadowSwordmaster

19974

Forum Posts

10454

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 19

User Lists: 13

This is amazing.

Avatar image for warsman
Warsman

5426

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Avatar image for _drake
_Drake

14900

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@warsman: Obviously =)

Btw, if no one else joins the Cabal, and if Doom pays well. I would be willing to join =D