Post by Chance on Aug 9, 2008 3:08:21 GMT -5
I apologize for the two-week break in chapters. I have no excuse. I did not work on the story at all during that time. ;D
Chapter 4 The Midnight Encounter with Death
A cold breeze disturbs the quiet of the evening. Grim stands facing the attacker and the victim, his hand raised, mana streaming dangerously from his hand and evaporating into the air.
“Oh?” Rogue sneers. “You’re that guy from last time.”
Grim returns with a smirk. “I’m glad you remember me. It will be over in a few moments.”
“Like hell it’ll be!” Rogue howls. He grabs Sally around the waist, positioning her body in front of himself as a shield. Grim growls, taken aback by the reckless gesture. “If anyone’s gonna be goin’ down tonight, it’s you, kid!”
Sally squints fearfully at Grim’s angered face through the darkness. “Please…run away and save yourself!” she squeals through eyes misted with tears. “If you want to save me, go call for some help!”
The girl’s ringing words reverberate through Grim’s mind. ‘Help…’ He clenches his fist. “That’s not—”
A dagger swims through the air, nearly cutting into his neck. Grim steps back just in time, eyes widened, as Rogue approaches him brandishing his dagger dangerously.
Grim teleports backwards, and watches his assailant from a distance. ‘I have to be careful… If I’m going to take this situation into my own hands, I have to know how to keep this fight in a form most advantageous for me. At the same time, my goal is to apprehend this rapist.’
Rogue comes at Grim again, still holding on to a screaming Sally. Grim dodges the attack with another teleport, and gathers a burst of mana in his gloved hand. ‘Damn it, with him holding onto Sally like that, I can’t risk casting a spell and hurting her as well.’
Grim steps back, thinking frantically of a way to strike without hurting Sally, as Rogue swings again and again with his dagger at Grim. Rogue eventually corners Grim at a fence. Grim bumps into the fence behind him, with nowhere left to go. Rogue places his jagged dagger against Grim’s exposed neck.
“Don’t think I ain’t afraid o’ killin’ just because I’m young,” Rogue sneers. “I’m Ossyrian. The police here don’t do nothin’ about Ossyrians who break the law.”
Grim glares back into the fathomless eyes of his opponent with supreme hatred. He lowers his head, and a twisted smile crosses his lips. Pinned to Rogue’s side, Sally watches with a mix of fear and curiosity as an evil gleam appears in Grim’s black eyes.
“What’s so funny, hero boy?” Rogue demands.
“A lowlife like you does not deserve life,” Grim answers morbidly, “and I don’t mind taking it away from you.”
Grim raises his hand to strike, but before he can act, a sharp point splits his side in two. Blood spills out of the wound and wets his jacket. Grim collapses, the contents of his punctured jacket pockets spilling out everywhere. In an instant, everything goes black.
Grim falls limply to the floor. Rogue takes a step back, tightening his grip on a writing Sally. She screams out of fright and shock, but Rogue places a rough hand over her mouth to silence her.
Rogue’s accomplice steps out of the shadows, hurling a bloody Steely to the ground. It lands inches from Grim’s nose, as he lays unconscious facedown on the ground.
Everything remains black. Sound slowly returns to his ears. A girl’s screams perturb the stillness of the heavy night air. Grim opens his eyes, and finds himself chained to a wall. His hands are bound together by rope, and he is hanging from a long metal chain affixed to the wall by a Steely.
Sally is lying on the floor surrounded by dozens of men. The entire scene suddenly clears for Grim, and he takes in his surroundings: an abandoned warehouse, its concrete walls laced with gang graffiti, bullet holes, and old blood stains. Huge boxes filled with unknown goods sit in a massive pile in a corner. Dozens of Rogue’s fellows are gathered to watch the gang rape about to take place.
A crony restrains a struggling Sally as she writhes about, resisting futilely. Rogue kneels down in front of her, placing a pair of hands on her jeans and ripping them off, revealing her underwear beneath.
“Stop that!” Grim suddenly shouts, his voice echoing in the vastness of the warehouse.
All eyes in the vicinity turn towards him. Grim struggles himself as well, his arms numbed from the weight of his body dragging him down.
Rogue returns to his feet, and sneers as he looks Grim in the eye. He pulls out a gun from his pocket. “Well, well, it looks like the hero’s awake again. Just in time to watch me rape this b****.” He points the gun at Sally, who automatically raises her arms in front of her.
Grim struggles again, unable to do anything but glare wrathfully at his enemies. “If you rape her, I promise I’ll kill every single one of you!”
Rogue raises an eyebrow. He points the gun at Grim, whose eyes immediately widen. “You’ll kill every one of us? Every last one of us? Empty threats. You sure know how to talk, you bastard.”
Grim watches the gun, his heart pounding furiously. He forces a composed glare on his face as Rogue steps nearer. ‘This is the first time I’ve ever had a gun pointed at me…’
A click sounds, and a bullet shell explodes on Grim’s right shoulder. Grim howls in pain as the others in the warehouse burst out laughing. Blood splatters over Grim’s clothes, his face, the wall, and the floor.
The pressure caused by Grim’s own weight dragging him down causes the gash in his shoulder to open more than normal. It pulses painfully, as the chain mercilessly holds Grim in place.
Satisfied, Rogue turns his attention back to the true victim. He waves a hand in the air. “Make sure our little friend here sees this. I don’t want him to miss a single f**king moment.”
Two of Rogue’s accomplices lumber towards Grim. They grab his face and absurdly force his eyes open, not even allowing him to blink. Grim’s eyes immediately begin to water upon contact.
“No! Stop that!” Grim yells across the room as Rogue continues to make his way back towards Sally. He struggles fruitlessly against the metal chains binding him to the wall. ‘Damn it! If only I could somehow call for help…anyone would do right now!’
The girl, paralyzed with fear, lies meekly on the floor watching her attacker approach, having given in to the inevitable long ago.
“Now, where were we?”
Rogue kneels down, and places a hand on Sally’s underwear. But at that moment, several loud explosions rock the entrance to the warehouse. All eyes in the building turn towards the door, as a small group of masked renegades storm the building.
“Hey! What the hell’s going on here?!” one of the thugs closest to the entrance shouts, approaching the masked enemies.
The one nearest him, a woman with long, flowing red hair, raises a small red capsule. Yellow sparks fly out of it, forming the shape of a bow. She fires, striking the enemy directly in the throat. The gangster falls to the ground, instantaneously killed.
Grim watches with awed horror, as the renegades sweep the entire warehouse, killing every last person in the building. Blood quickly bathes the ground.
Rogue watches with absolute shock, his knees quivering as the enemies draw closer and closer around him. Sally too watches fearfully, not knowing whether she is witnessing a rescue or a random massacre.
Two of the renegades approach Grim, mercilessly slaughtering the pair of guards watching over him. The first is the woman with red hair, and they glance at each other awkwardly as the woman begins to undo the chains binding Grim to the wall.
‘It can’t be…’ Grim wonders to himself.
The woman’s companion, with strands of orange hair poking out from behind his Cellion mask, cuts the chains apart with a small blast of lightning.
“Hey!” Grim cries out loud. “Just who are you people, and what are you doing?”
He directs his question particularly at the red-haired woman, who stares at him from behind a cat mask that covers her entire head. She shakes her head, and signals for him to wait there.
The two renegades then run off, joining their comrades in extending the slaughter. Grim watches sickly as each and every gang member is ruthlessly killed. He holds a hand up to his mouth, attempting to refrain from throwing up.
After spending some time leaning against the dirty concrete wall, Grim rises again, watching as Rogue is now the only enemy left standing. He is surrounded by the entire mob of renegades, all of whom are pointing their weapons at him.
Rogue raises his hands nervously, as Sally watches in awe from the floor. One of the renegades approaches who appears to be the leader, a tall, dark-haired man in his early thirties, his face obscured by a wolf mask.
“Macbeth, our sources appear to be right after all. Look.” The renegade points towards the massive stockpile of boxes in the warehouse. “Manaine.”
Rogue glares resentfully at the renegades now hurrying to secure the crates of manaine. “Am I being arrested? Are you the police?”
“Ha!” one of the renegades shouts, a particularly lively one whose face is hidden behind a dog mask. “We ain’t the police, ya bastard! Do ya think the police would bother comin’ to a s***hole like this? They don’t even care. It’s ‘cause we care that we came here to slaughter ya bastards!”
“Yes,” the red-haired woman announces, “Rogue T. Blackwater, we’ve come to execute you for illegally trafficking drugs!”
“Bastards!” Rogue howls, immediately grabbing his gun. He points it at the crowd around him. “Like you’ll ever catch me!” He raises his gun, but before he can even direct it at a specific person, a bullet, an arrow, and a lightning bolt all pierce him in the chest.
Rogue is thrown backwards, his body landing amongst his illegal crates of manaine. The renegades surround Sally instantly, attending to her with great and urgent care.
Meanwhile, Grim watches the exchange unfold with a calm air. He observes the renegades quietly from a corner, analyzing their every move. He folds his arms. ‘They appear to be some sort of renegade group. They’re definitely not with the police, though they seem to act with some form of justice as their basis. Judging by the masks, they’re highly secretive, and have no qualms about killing—no, rather, they intend to kill. Moreover, that woman—’
The leader, Macbeth, an imposing swordsman, steps in front of Grim at that moment. Grim, drawn from his thoughts, peers apprehensively at the much taller man standing in front of him. The dark-haired man, his face hidden by a wolf mask, points a gleaming sword at Grim’s throat.
“And who are you?”
Grim gulps, daringly looking straight into his opponent’s mask.
A haze of early morning sunshine penetrates the darkened horizon at last, shedding pale shafts of light over the city of Ellinia. Outside the student dormitories, all is quiet on the school grounds.
Ophelia paces anxiously around the courtyard outside the girls’ dormitories. She holds her cell phone up to her ear, listening anxiously for a response on the other end. A frown replaces the usual smile on her face. Numerous other students begin to make their way through the grounds, and Ophelia quickly glances at each one desperately. She still receives no answer.
Over in the park, behind a bench and next to a puddle of semi-dried blood, a host of objects apparently belonging to a student are laying in the grass. Among them is a cell phone, which vibrates incessantly, alerting no owner. The name on the phone’s small caller ID screen reads, ‘Ophelia Westbrook.’
Grim sighs wearily, rubbing his side which is now bandaged heavily underneath his school uniform. He stretches his stiff shoulder as well, nursing the part where the bullet had hit him. He glances at his watch, which reads 11:07 AM. He sighs again.
“Late again. Severely late, moreover. Hopefully the professor doesn’t take notice of my extreme tardiness.”
Grim slides the door open to his classroom, and at once, all eyes within the classroom turn towards him. “Professor,” Grim announces pleasantly, “I apologize for my latenes—”
The professor immediately swats Grim with a large textbook across the face, leaving a massive, burning red mark on his cheek. “Grim L. Wright! How nice of you to show up! This level of irresponsibility from you is appalling! What is the current date?”
“O-October 26th, Professor!” Grim cries, cowering before the heavy textbook.
“Exactly, you just missed the test on the Third Mana War, Grim! The test I said you could not miss at all costs! I hate to do this to one of my best students, but I’m assigning you to remedial studies after school to make up for this test! This is an appalling slip of behavior from you, Grim!”
Grim’s face falls upon this grave exclamation. He sighs, shaking his head. “Evidently this is not my lucky day,” he says softly, as if to himself. He glances at Ophelia for support, but she averts his gaze. Grim’s eyes widen upon realization.
Next: Nostalgia – 5 The Rainclouds Deliver Justice
Chapter 4 The Midnight Encounter with Death
A cold breeze disturbs the quiet of the evening. Grim stands facing the attacker and the victim, his hand raised, mana streaming dangerously from his hand and evaporating into the air.
“Oh?” Rogue sneers. “You’re that guy from last time.”
Grim returns with a smirk. “I’m glad you remember me. It will be over in a few moments.”
“Like hell it’ll be!” Rogue howls. He grabs Sally around the waist, positioning her body in front of himself as a shield. Grim growls, taken aback by the reckless gesture. “If anyone’s gonna be goin’ down tonight, it’s you, kid!”
Sally squints fearfully at Grim’s angered face through the darkness. “Please…run away and save yourself!” she squeals through eyes misted with tears. “If you want to save me, go call for some help!”
The girl’s ringing words reverberate through Grim’s mind. ‘Help…’ He clenches his fist. “That’s not—”
A dagger swims through the air, nearly cutting into his neck. Grim steps back just in time, eyes widened, as Rogue approaches him brandishing his dagger dangerously.
Grim teleports backwards, and watches his assailant from a distance. ‘I have to be careful… If I’m going to take this situation into my own hands, I have to know how to keep this fight in a form most advantageous for me. At the same time, my goal is to apprehend this rapist.’
Rogue comes at Grim again, still holding on to a screaming Sally. Grim dodges the attack with another teleport, and gathers a burst of mana in his gloved hand. ‘Damn it, with him holding onto Sally like that, I can’t risk casting a spell and hurting her as well.’
Grim steps back, thinking frantically of a way to strike without hurting Sally, as Rogue swings again and again with his dagger at Grim. Rogue eventually corners Grim at a fence. Grim bumps into the fence behind him, with nowhere left to go. Rogue places his jagged dagger against Grim’s exposed neck.
“Don’t think I ain’t afraid o’ killin’ just because I’m young,” Rogue sneers. “I’m Ossyrian. The police here don’t do nothin’ about Ossyrians who break the law.”
Grim glares back into the fathomless eyes of his opponent with supreme hatred. He lowers his head, and a twisted smile crosses his lips. Pinned to Rogue’s side, Sally watches with a mix of fear and curiosity as an evil gleam appears in Grim’s black eyes.
“What’s so funny, hero boy?” Rogue demands.
“A lowlife like you does not deserve life,” Grim answers morbidly, “and I don’t mind taking it away from you.”
Grim raises his hand to strike, but before he can act, a sharp point splits his side in two. Blood spills out of the wound and wets his jacket. Grim collapses, the contents of his punctured jacket pockets spilling out everywhere. In an instant, everything goes black.
Grim falls limply to the floor. Rogue takes a step back, tightening his grip on a writing Sally. She screams out of fright and shock, but Rogue places a rough hand over her mouth to silence her.
Rogue’s accomplice steps out of the shadows, hurling a bloody Steely to the ground. It lands inches from Grim’s nose, as he lays unconscious facedown on the ground.
Everything remains black. Sound slowly returns to his ears. A girl’s screams perturb the stillness of the heavy night air. Grim opens his eyes, and finds himself chained to a wall. His hands are bound together by rope, and he is hanging from a long metal chain affixed to the wall by a Steely.
Sally is lying on the floor surrounded by dozens of men. The entire scene suddenly clears for Grim, and he takes in his surroundings: an abandoned warehouse, its concrete walls laced with gang graffiti, bullet holes, and old blood stains. Huge boxes filled with unknown goods sit in a massive pile in a corner. Dozens of Rogue’s fellows are gathered to watch the gang rape about to take place.
A crony restrains a struggling Sally as she writhes about, resisting futilely. Rogue kneels down in front of her, placing a pair of hands on her jeans and ripping them off, revealing her underwear beneath.
“Stop that!” Grim suddenly shouts, his voice echoing in the vastness of the warehouse.
All eyes in the vicinity turn towards him. Grim struggles himself as well, his arms numbed from the weight of his body dragging him down.
Rogue returns to his feet, and sneers as he looks Grim in the eye. He pulls out a gun from his pocket. “Well, well, it looks like the hero’s awake again. Just in time to watch me rape this b****.” He points the gun at Sally, who automatically raises her arms in front of her.
Grim struggles again, unable to do anything but glare wrathfully at his enemies. “If you rape her, I promise I’ll kill every single one of you!”
Rogue raises an eyebrow. He points the gun at Grim, whose eyes immediately widen. “You’ll kill every one of us? Every last one of us? Empty threats. You sure know how to talk, you bastard.”
Grim watches the gun, his heart pounding furiously. He forces a composed glare on his face as Rogue steps nearer. ‘This is the first time I’ve ever had a gun pointed at me…’
A click sounds, and a bullet shell explodes on Grim’s right shoulder. Grim howls in pain as the others in the warehouse burst out laughing. Blood splatters over Grim’s clothes, his face, the wall, and the floor.
The pressure caused by Grim’s own weight dragging him down causes the gash in his shoulder to open more than normal. It pulses painfully, as the chain mercilessly holds Grim in place.
Satisfied, Rogue turns his attention back to the true victim. He waves a hand in the air. “Make sure our little friend here sees this. I don’t want him to miss a single f**king moment.”
Two of Rogue’s accomplices lumber towards Grim. They grab his face and absurdly force his eyes open, not even allowing him to blink. Grim’s eyes immediately begin to water upon contact.
“No! Stop that!” Grim yells across the room as Rogue continues to make his way back towards Sally. He struggles fruitlessly against the metal chains binding him to the wall. ‘Damn it! If only I could somehow call for help…anyone would do right now!’
The girl, paralyzed with fear, lies meekly on the floor watching her attacker approach, having given in to the inevitable long ago.
“Now, where were we?”
Rogue kneels down, and places a hand on Sally’s underwear. But at that moment, several loud explosions rock the entrance to the warehouse. All eyes in the building turn towards the door, as a small group of masked renegades storm the building.
“Hey! What the hell’s going on here?!” one of the thugs closest to the entrance shouts, approaching the masked enemies.
The one nearest him, a woman with long, flowing red hair, raises a small red capsule. Yellow sparks fly out of it, forming the shape of a bow. She fires, striking the enemy directly in the throat. The gangster falls to the ground, instantaneously killed.
Grim watches with awed horror, as the renegades sweep the entire warehouse, killing every last person in the building. Blood quickly bathes the ground.
Rogue watches with absolute shock, his knees quivering as the enemies draw closer and closer around him. Sally too watches fearfully, not knowing whether she is witnessing a rescue or a random massacre.
Two of the renegades approach Grim, mercilessly slaughtering the pair of guards watching over him. The first is the woman with red hair, and they glance at each other awkwardly as the woman begins to undo the chains binding Grim to the wall.
‘It can’t be…’ Grim wonders to himself.
The woman’s companion, with strands of orange hair poking out from behind his Cellion mask, cuts the chains apart with a small blast of lightning.
“Hey!” Grim cries out loud. “Just who are you people, and what are you doing?”
He directs his question particularly at the red-haired woman, who stares at him from behind a cat mask that covers her entire head. She shakes her head, and signals for him to wait there.
The two renegades then run off, joining their comrades in extending the slaughter. Grim watches sickly as each and every gang member is ruthlessly killed. He holds a hand up to his mouth, attempting to refrain from throwing up.
After spending some time leaning against the dirty concrete wall, Grim rises again, watching as Rogue is now the only enemy left standing. He is surrounded by the entire mob of renegades, all of whom are pointing their weapons at him.
Rogue raises his hands nervously, as Sally watches in awe from the floor. One of the renegades approaches who appears to be the leader, a tall, dark-haired man in his early thirties, his face obscured by a wolf mask.
“Macbeth, our sources appear to be right after all. Look.” The renegade points towards the massive stockpile of boxes in the warehouse. “Manaine.”
Rogue glares resentfully at the renegades now hurrying to secure the crates of manaine. “Am I being arrested? Are you the police?”
“Ha!” one of the renegades shouts, a particularly lively one whose face is hidden behind a dog mask. “We ain’t the police, ya bastard! Do ya think the police would bother comin’ to a s***hole like this? They don’t even care. It’s ‘cause we care that we came here to slaughter ya bastards!”
“Yes,” the red-haired woman announces, “Rogue T. Blackwater, we’ve come to execute you for illegally trafficking drugs!”
“Bastards!” Rogue howls, immediately grabbing his gun. He points it at the crowd around him. “Like you’ll ever catch me!” He raises his gun, but before he can even direct it at a specific person, a bullet, an arrow, and a lightning bolt all pierce him in the chest.
Rogue is thrown backwards, his body landing amongst his illegal crates of manaine. The renegades surround Sally instantly, attending to her with great and urgent care.
Meanwhile, Grim watches the exchange unfold with a calm air. He observes the renegades quietly from a corner, analyzing their every move. He folds his arms. ‘They appear to be some sort of renegade group. They’re definitely not with the police, though they seem to act with some form of justice as their basis. Judging by the masks, they’re highly secretive, and have no qualms about killing—no, rather, they intend to kill. Moreover, that woman—’
The leader, Macbeth, an imposing swordsman, steps in front of Grim at that moment. Grim, drawn from his thoughts, peers apprehensively at the much taller man standing in front of him. The dark-haired man, his face hidden by a wolf mask, points a gleaming sword at Grim’s throat.
“And who are you?”
Grim gulps, daringly looking straight into his opponent’s mask.
A haze of early morning sunshine penetrates the darkened horizon at last, shedding pale shafts of light over the city of Ellinia. Outside the student dormitories, all is quiet on the school grounds.
Ophelia paces anxiously around the courtyard outside the girls’ dormitories. She holds her cell phone up to her ear, listening anxiously for a response on the other end. A frown replaces the usual smile on her face. Numerous other students begin to make their way through the grounds, and Ophelia quickly glances at each one desperately. She still receives no answer.
Over in the park, behind a bench and next to a puddle of semi-dried blood, a host of objects apparently belonging to a student are laying in the grass. Among them is a cell phone, which vibrates incessantly, alerting no owner. The name on the phone’s small caller ID screen reads, ‘Ophelia Westbrook.’
Grim sighs wearily, rubbing his side which is now bandaged heavily underneath his school uniform. He stretches his stiff shoulder as well, nursing the part where the bullet had hit him. He glances at his watch, which reads 11:07 AM. He sighs again.
“Late again. Severely late, moreover. Hopefully the professor doesn’t take notice of my extreme tardiness.”
Grim slides the door open to his classroom, and at once, all eyes within the classroom turn towards him. “Professor,” Grim announces pleasantly, “I apologize for my latenes—”
The professor immediately swats Grim with a large textbook across the face, leaving a massive, burning red mark on his cheek. “Grim L. Wright! How nice of you to show up! This level of irresponsibility from you is appalling! What is the current date?”
“O-October 26th, Professor!” Grim cries, cowering before the heavy textbook.
“Exactly, you just missed the test on the Third Mana War, Grim! The test I said you could not miss at all costs! I hate to do this to one of my best students, but I’m assigning you to remedial studies after school to make up for this test! This is an appalling slip of behavior from you, Grim!”
Grim’s face falls upon this grave exclamation. He sighs, shaking his head. “Evidently this is not my lucky day,” he says softly, as if to himself. He glances at Ophelia for support, but she averts his gaze. Grim’s eyes widen upon realization.
Next: Nostalgia – 5 The Rainclouds Deliver Justice
